Less than 24 hours after it opened, the new basketball court at Mollymook has been vandalised before the construction fencing was even taken down.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Players arrived on Sunday morning to find broken glass, tyre marks and surface damage from rocks being thrown onto the court.
Emily Richardson said her 13 year old son was devastated to find the court in a such a state.
“He has been waiting months for the court to open,” Emily said.
“The Basketball Club has put years into this project.
“We know it must have happened at night because the boys were there playing all day on Saturday and I picked them up at 5.30pm.
“I dropped them back off at 7.30am on Sunday and that’s when they saw it,” she said.
The police were notified of the incident.
It has taken more than two years for Rotary Club, Milton Ulladulla Basketball Association and the Shoalhaven Council to find the funds and complete the court.
Richard Nesbitt, who volunteered to take on the role of project manager for the new court said he was very disappointed.
“There are a few in the community who disregard other community members efforts,” he said.
The Basketball Club and Rotary Club raised most of the funds for the court themselves through community activities and hard work. They were assisted by the Shoalhaven Council and the Veolia Mulwaree Trust.
A fence around the area was deliberately not built to encourage as many people to use the public facility as possible.
The court is still usable however the surface has been permanently damaged.
“We sort of expected this to happen but not this soon,” Emily said.