PLAYING sport at Sir Jack Brabham Park will be much easier for players and spectators from April, with toilets and change facilities to add to shelters already provided at the sporting fields.
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Work started this week on the change rooms and public toilets on the western side of the fields, alongside the softball diamonds and close to the cricket and soccer fields, costing $791,000.
Two change rooms will cater for up to 20 people each, also including two showers and two toilets each.
The toilets will comprise four toilets each for men and women, plus an accessible toilet, a storage area and footpath from the Forest Road car park.
The lack of a disabled toilet has been a sore point for sporting groups with a disability, who have struggled to reach the current facility in time, and the project has been in the council's budget for a number of years.
The old toilet block is located further north, well away from where most sport is played, and room is tight.
Mayor Reg Kidd said the fields would one day be an extension of the multipurpose sporting precinct and the project had gone ahead thanks to a successful application for state government funds.
"I can guarantee you with [children], once you get to a sporting field, someone wants to go to the loo so it's pretty important," he said.
"With change rooms, [it's] somewhere you can get changed and you're not in and out of your car trying to put on a jumper, where the coaches can talk to [players], today we expect that sort of facility."
Sport and recreation committee chair and councillor Jason Hamling said 10 shelters had already been added to the soccer fields to provide more cover for spectators in tough weather conditions.
"We are listening to the sporting community and we're doing our best to listen to what they say," he said.
Cr Hamling sporting groups were yet to meet to speak about transforming the Orange Ex-Services' Club golf course.
"They're very positive, they know this is great for the facilities and sport in Orange," he said.
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