PCYC plans new $15 million youth, sports and community hub in Wagga Wagga

The PCYC (Police Citizens Youth Clubs NSW) has revealed a $15 million plan to upgrade the old South Wagga Bowling Club into a youth, sports and community hub.

The organisation's plans for the city’s largest integrated youth facility was developed after the PCYC consulted with more than 50 community organisations on ways to counter limited youth services.

PCYC has cited sport, recreation and youth development, a youth drop-in space, a cafe and events space as four key functions of the new centre.

However, the plan for the facility at the old South Wagga Bowling Club has seen the PCYC go back on a plan to relocate to Wagga Wagga's Bolton Park Stadium. Previously Wagga Wagga City Council and PCYC had signed a Memorandum of Understanding to redevelop the ageing indoor arena, which was built in 1977.

The South Wagga Bowling Club shut down in 2012 and has been the subject of a series of plans over several years, with the NSW Government rejecting an application for 300 additional poker machines in 2011 and a $35 million entertainment centre never coming to fruition.

Wagga Wagga's Mayor Rod Kendall said that the PCYC's proposal was a departure from the Bolton Park Stadium plan, but acknowledged PCYC’s vision, which “has a lot of benefits to the city”.

Mayor Kendall told the ABC "PCYC have changed their tact midstream, I guess you could say, and now they have got a stand alone proposal that they have given council some preliminary understanding of, at the old South Wagga Bowling Club.

"That means that council will need to effectively sit back and say 'Ok what do we now need to do with this upgrade at Bolton Park?'"

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