Sharing New Artificial Turf

The community and school sports will both be winners with a new artificial turf field being installed at Wellington College in partnership with the City Council.

Work started last week on the construction of the new turf, which will replace an existing boggy field in the college grounds. Significantly, the turf will also be available for the general public to use.

Councillor John Morrison, the Council's Portfolio Leader for Sports and Events, says this is the first time the Council has gone into partnership with a school for an artificial turf sportsfield.

"We've gone into this agreement with the aim of encouraging more people to take part in sport - whether at school or in their local touch team," he says.

"The really great thing about these artificial fields is that sporting activities can carry on year-round without the interruption of wet weather, and they can be used by so many different codes."

Under the agreement, the public will be able to book the turf Mondays to Thursdays after 5.30pm, Saturday afternoons, Sundays all day and up to half of school holiday periods. The turf will have permanent markings for both football and rugby but can be used for many other sports such as touch, league, ultimate and athletics.

At 90 metres from goal to goal it will be the largest school field of its type in Wellington, and the turf is to be certified by FIFA and the International Rugby Board (IRB). We are contributing $660,000 with Wellington College funding the balance - the college will own the field and be responsible for the upkeep of the turf and grounds.

The new field will be completed in February next year bringing the number of artificial sportsfields constructed in the city since 2009 to five.