By Mitch Gaynor
DIVISION 1 councillors have committed to delivering the Beerwah Sportsground back to volunteers.
The sportsground was handed back to the council last year after decades in the hands of a community management committee.
Since then tenants including the Beerwah Lions have been at loggerheads over services and maintenance, including the decision to axe camping on the grounds.
Speaking from the floor at last week’s Meet the Candidates forum in Landsborough, Lions president Rod Layt (pictured) urged mayoral and Division 1 candidates to fix the issue.
Division 1 candidate Jenny Broderick said she had been invested in the sportsground for years.
“We need to get back to a commonsense council,” she said.
“In order to do that we need to remember that these facilities have been built, maintained and sustained by our communities and volunteers.
“Our volunteers are the lifeblood of our community and we need to be looking after them, respecting them and listening to them and that’s exactly what hasn’t happened in some of these situations.”
Ms Broderick said a key priority for the sportsground would be to bring back caravanning facilities.
“There are ways to get that back and we have to,” she said.
“We have a serious accommodation shortage. Tourists have nowhere to go. “They are going to Maleny or somewhere else, but that money is not staying here and it needs to start doing that.”