Council awarded the contract for installation and supply of lighting to REES Electrical Pty Ltd at the extraordinary ordinary meeting held on December 7.

The $770,000 project will be fully-funded by council after the need for lighting at Donnelly Fields was identified in council’s community strategic plan and the riverine landscape masterplan for the Namoi River foreshore and parklands in Gunnedah Shire.

Council’s chief engineer fDaniel Nobel said the lighting upgrade would create more opportunities for local sporting groups.

“The project is necessary to accommodate the needs of current sporting groups and to create an opportunity for increased use by organisations that will soon be able to utilise the facility under lights,” Mr Noble said.

“The project will improve the grounds for a variety of sports including touch football, softball, and night cricket.”

Gunnedah Junior Cricket Associations Katrina King said the fields are not currently being used by any local cricket teams.

“Currently, because of numbers, we only use the Namoi River flats at the canteen end of the fields,” Mrs King said.

“Senior cricket’s third grade would normally play there but we had to abandon third grade this season.”

Mrs King said she was unsure if the association would use the fields next season.

“At this stage it all depends on numbers,” she said.

“If we have similar numbers to this season I doubt will be using Donnelly Fields at all.”

The project involves the installation of six, 30m-high lighting poles with the entire playing area expected to be under light.

Council has also purchased a vacant block on the corner of Tempest and Bloomfield streets for potential sports field developments in the future.

The construction phase of the project is approximately 20 weeks, with work to upgrade the current electrical supply scheduled to commence in February, 2018. The project is expected to be completed by July, 2018.