THE last time North Wangaratta football club played a match at its home ground the Western Bulldogs and Richmond were not considered likely to win AFL flags anytime soon.
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Now another premiership drought, that of Melbourne, could be over before the Ovens and King combination gets to return to North Wangaratta Recreation Reserve.
Such has been the prolonged period over which an investigation, by the Victorian Environment Protection Authority, into lead contamination has occurred.
The lengthy timeframe has been blasted by Ovens Valley MP Tim McCurdy.
“The EPA should be embarrassed by its tardiness,” the Nationals politician told parliament.
“The lack of urgency and the lack of respect for this great community club shows the EPA is well out of touch with expectations.”
Mr McCurdy is right.
It is not good enough that a problem that first saw the oval taped off for use in May 2016 is still unresolved and football will not return until the 2019 season.
In December 2016, North East EPA manager Emma Knights said the environmental watchdog wanted the contamination “dealt with as efficiently and swiftly as possible”.
The Border Mail speculated at that time, in an editorial, about the delay that “we can imagine it may be linked to limited resources and competing priorities”.
In response to Mr McCurdy’s criticism, EPA executive director regional services directorate Damian Wells said his organisation “gone well beyond its regulatory role to advance a positive outcome”.
We imagine that, in plain speak, those words translate into “we’ve tried our hardest”.
That may be so, but can you imagine such contamination on a ground used by a football club in Melbourne taking so long.
It is fortunate North Wangaratta has been assisted by the city’s two Ovens and Murray clubs during the saga.
Mr McCurdy suggested that if the EPA failed to lift its game it should be shutdown and environmental decisions outsourced.
They are drastic steps and unlikely to occur, given the legislative framework around the EPA, but something needs to change.
Nobody, be they a business, household, sporting club or community organisation should be at the mercy of such a protracted and bureaucratic process.
Clean up your approach EPA.