Charles Bean Oval is one of the most heavily used community sports fields in Ku-ring-gai. Around 80 hours a week of football, school PE and junior sport happen on this surface, for thousands of NSFA kids, it’s where they play.
The current synthetic surface is at end of life and Council is preparing to renew it. A vocal local campaign is now telling Council to use the renewal as an opportunity to rip the surface up and replace it with natural turf.
NSFA’s analysis is that this would drop usable hours from around 80 a week to around 30. That is fifty hours of football that have to come from somewhere. There are only two places it can go. Either thousands of local children are told they can’t register next season because there’s nowhere to play them. Or Council installs floodlights at quieter residential ovals across the LGA to recover the lost capacity. Both outcomes are worse than the field we already have.
We need every NSFA family to take 30 seconds and tell Council that keeping this field open is the right answer. The campaign form below lets you add a personalised message before you send it, and that personal touch is exactly what makes councillors pay attention.
After completing the form, the following email will be sent to local councillers.
Dear Councillors,
I am writing as a [parent/grandparent/coach/player/local resident] to ask you to support retaining a modern synthetic surface at Charles Bean Oval. [personal message]
The field carries around 80 hours of school PE, organised sport and informal community use each week. If the surface is replaced with natural turf, weekly usage falls to around 30 hours. There is no other field in Ku-ring-gai with the capacity to absorb the difference.
The practical consequence is one of two outcomes. Either thousands of local children are told they cannot register next season because there is nowhere to play them. Or Council installs floodlights at other ovals across the LGA, including bushland adjacent fields in quiet residential streets, to recover the hours. Both outcomes are worse than the field we already have.
I am not persuaded that removing this field is the right answer to the environmental concerns being raised. This is an end of life cycle replacement, not a new install. A modern surface can be specified to PFAS free certification with organic infill, engineered drainage and perimeter capture, all of which reduce run off compared with the current field. The NSW Government’s 2025 guidelines set the framework for installing synthetic surfaces responsibly.
I urge you to replace the surface with a current generation synthetic system built to those standards. Please do not allow a vocal campaign to override the practical needs of the thousands of children who use this field every week.
Yours sincerely,
[NAME]
[Postcode]