Horsham Rural City Council is seeking feedback on three shortlisted locations for a new stadium, including two within Horsham Showground and one in the railway corridor.

Di Bell, speaking on behalf of the group, said its members wanted to see the potential new stadium built on Horsham College’s Baillie Street campus on land along Jenksinson Avenue.

“We felt there was a lack of full consultation with the community,” she said.

“When we were told about the shortlist of the three sites, we couldn’t work out why Horsham west wasn’t being considered, given that it was near the two biggest schools in town and there is nowhere like a stadium in the area.

Mrs Bell said the new stadium should not be built at the showground as it was prone to flooding from the Wimmera River.

“The external courts would have been underwater in the last flood,” she said.

“The main issue for us would mean closing McBryde Street, Horsham. I did a car count for cars getting to and from school drop-offs. In 45 minutes there were 265 cars.

“If they close that street where on earth would all the traffic go?”

Mrs Bell said a location on Horsham’s west side would make it much easier and cheaper for schools in that area to make ongoing use of the stadium rather than just for big tournaments.

The Jenkinson Avenue area identified by the group is currently farmland.

Mrs Bell said Horsham council had acquired land for previous projects such as the Wimmera Intermodal Freight Terminal and should do so again.

While it is still not certain that the project will go ahead, Horsham council has spent $22,000 on a feasibility study that estimated the cost at between $8 million and $10 million.

Horsham council’s draft 2017-18 budget has proposed to spend another $200,000 on designs.

Councillor Mark Radford said the project control group and councillors would consider all community feedback.

“The project control group has listened to what Mrs Bell’s group has had to say, along with all the other submissions that we have received,” he said.

Cr Radford denied there had been a lack of consultation.

He said it was one of the biggest efforts at feedback he could recall.

“We received a lot of submissions, written and from the internet survey, as well as the listening posts,” he said.

Horsham mayor Pam Clarke declined to comment on the stadium due to a potential conflict of interest.