Cooke Hockey Complex to benefit from new LED lighting

Overnight rain on November 14 brought 86.4 millimetres of rain to the Bathurst rain gauges, resulting in widespread flooding across the region.

A number of club containers were affected by flooding at the Cooke Hockey Complex, soaking any items on the ground, resulting in over $10,000 worth of items binned.

While the home of Bathurst hockey is still recovering from flooding, the complex is set to receive $190,000 from the NSW Government to upgrade the lighting on its turf fields one and two.

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This will mean players will be able to play for longer into the evening, extending the use of the facilities.

The new lights will be LED and competition grade standard, reducing the appearance of shadows on the field.

Bathurst MP Paul Toole said other sport clubs will able to use the facilities to train.

"Sport is such a big part of our local community and investing in our local facilities will help deliver better services for local people to enjoy," he said.

"Like we have experienced recently, many of our sporting fields struggle to cope with water. The Bathurst Hockey Centre has been the saving grace for many sporting clubs to train on.

"Now they have the capacity to host other sporting clubs such as rugby, soccer and AFL on their fields for training of an evening under the lights."

It was recently announced that the Cooke Hockey Complex would have upgraded toilets and change rooms ahead of the next season's competition thanks to the NSW Government granting the Bathurst Hockey Association $7,500 for the upgrades as part of the Local Sports Grants program for 2021-2022.

Mr Toole said the funding means the complex will now have amenities to accommodate local and visiting teams.

"Bathurst Hockey Centre is home to some major hockey tournaments and now there will be change room and toilet facilities to accommodate for such large numbers of teams and spectators," Mr Toole said.

"This will make weekend sports more enjoyable and bring even more tournaments to the region which is great for the sport and for the local economy."

Bathurst Hockey Association president Kent Bestwick said the club is excited for the upgraded facilities.

"We have had a lot of work done to the fields in the past years and now it is time for the rest of our complex to match the high quality of facility we have to offer local and visiting teams," Mr Toole said.

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