No it’s not a joke. Documents obtained under the official information act reveal that the Albert Eden Local Board (AELB) wants to spend a whopping $15m of rate payer money on creating two sports fields as part of its redevelopment plans of Chamberlain Park. The AELB already has $8million of that funding from Council. It is now looking for a further $7m from Council to level off and create platforms from the significant undulation of bedrock that exists on the North Eastern part of the golf course (where the two sports fields are proposed). The AELB claimed in its 2014 three year Plan that there was a "critical need for playing fields" in Albert Eden. That statement is blatantly INCORRECT! We already have 32 sports fields in Albert Eden! And this exceeds the defined requirement (in hours per week) for the current population of 105.000. So in its 2017 Plan the AELB actually dropped this claim, stating that "open space is limited" (i.e. it is not unlimited) and that the AELB will advocate for sports field "upgrades that make more of our fields usable all year around." We totally agree with up-grading the existing sports fields that become boggy in winter! By sand-carpeting these existing fields, the hours of usage per field would be doubled. The population could grow another 40,000 and there still will be sufficient hours per week of field use/capita. With $15million, sand-carpeting 15 sports fields at around $1 million per field would provide a massively superior outcome and we can keep the 18 hole “sports-field for the working man” (aka Chamberlain Golf Course). So why are they still pursuing the extra two fields? What checks and balances are there in the system that allows the Council to green light funding for unnecessary projects when a superior outcome could be achieved with a fraction of the funds? How does such expenditure get through? Remember it’s our hard earned rates money!