WORK to build a new netball and tennis court at Great Western has come to a standstill.
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Northern Grampians Shire Council had scheduled work to finish by April and in time for round one of the Mininera and District Football League 2019 season.
A Northern Grampians Shire Council spokesman said the concrete slab had been poured for the new courts.
"The weather turned bad before we could get the acrylic surface on - this means the club won't be able to use the courts for competition this season," he said.
"We thought we could get an interim surface down but the surfacing contractor spoke with Netball Victoria and they were concerned about player safety and advised against it - essentially any surface put down in cold and damp conditions could fail and cause injury.
"The contractor informed us that Netball Victoria gave a green light to continue using the old courts for the remainder of the season so that we can come back and surface the slab once the weather warms up again."
Despite the hold up at the facility, the spokesman said work which could be done, will still go ahead.
"In terms of works remaining, the netball rings will be installed on Tuesday and the light towers look like they'll go up late this week if all goes according to plan," they said.
"We're still waiting on the chain link fence to be delivered, and once that arrives it will be installed and followed by a tidy up of the surrounding area.
"The aim is to have everything but the surface installed and in a presentable state by next Friday, contingent on the delivery of the fence."
Great Western Football Netball Club president Tracey McCartney said the club was disappointed with the delay.
"We are disappointed with the outcome. We were told we needed everything ready from our end by Melbourne Cup weekend last year," she said.
"We did our bit and got everything ready. We could see the delays from here and were optimistic about the project being completed within the advised time frame.
"The Council advised Netball Victoria granted us permission to use the old court for the rest of the season."
Mrs McCartney said the club was looking forward to the completed project.
"It's going to be great not only for the club but for the whole community once it's finished," she said.
"It's going to be a great facility. At the moment it's just frustrating to see the slab of concrete there almost ready to be used, knowing we will have to wait until next season."
Northern Grampians Shire councillor Jason Hosemans said a land title issue involving Telstra had caused delays at the start of the project.
"We still haven't completely tidied up the land title issue with Telstra," he said.
"We are still finalising that which was an issue initially because unfortunately the project impinges on their land.
"Ideally we should of started earlier. I think council got caught out not realising the surface was a temperature sensitive product. The original contractor pulled out so we had to source another.
"It was one delay after another and now we're stuck because it's too cold."
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