A CROSS border cricket hub based in Wodonga has won backing from Albury Council after a call to end "whinging" over how money flows between the Twin Cities.
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David Thurley fired up after Alice Glachan told Monday night's Albury Council meeting that she wanted to know if Wodonga Council had ever contributed money to a project in the NSW city.
The pair was debating a request from Wodonga Council to provide $137,500 for stage two of the cricket centre being built at Birallee Park.
"For God's sake we've signed an agreement, Two Cities, One Community, stop whinging and asking 'did they give us anything, did we give them anything?'," Cr Thurley said.
"This is what the NSW government and Victorian government have been doing for the last 50 years and it's got us nowhere, so let's not us get involved in it."
Cr Glachan defended her decision to ask the question of Albury staff, on the basis it reflected complaints she had from ratepayers about money going to Wodonga.
"This is yet another example of our community not being quite supportive, as supportive as they might be," Cr Glachan said.
"Us as councillors will be beaten up if we support it and we'll be beaten up if we don't support it by the community.
"I want to show our community on both sides of the river that it is the two cities who are both collaborating, not just on this, but on other ventures as well, so that's why I'm asking the question."
It opted to support providing extra cash, subject to successful grant applications, after a presentation by Cricket Albury Wodonga chief Michael Erdeljac before Monday night's meeting.
He said he was very confident of the submissions for funding to the Australian Cricket Infrastructure Fund and Sport and Recreation Victoria succeeding for stage two which involves turf wickets.
But Mr Erdeljac said it was important to have Albury Council support for the cricket hub and noted 60 out of every 100 children using the centre would come from Albury.
In response to a question from councillor Henk van de Ven, Mr Erdeljac could not say why the full stage one and two costs were not sought originally.
But he likened not having stage two completed to a car without accessories.
