Councillors debated, at a meeting on Monday night, about when the report should be accessible to the community.

It came despite the report being available publically via the council agenda. 

The council’s technical services director John Martin recommended that the council the business case and concept design report for the Wimmera Sports Stadium and make it available to the public. 

He said representatives of the project control group and the Horsham Amateur Basketball Association would be invited to discuss their views on the report. 

Cr John Robinson said the council needed to address a number of issues before the document was released for public view. He said the Horsham Amateur Basketball Association was not on board with the project.

“If the basketball association walked walked away from the project, which is the current state of affairs, the question is – do we even have a project?” he said. 

“My advice is not to put the document out the community before we get our house in order with the relative parties. The basketball association is one of the main players and they are not in the sandpit and that would be fatal to the project unless resolved.” 

Cr Mark Radford said people were entitled to view the document and the Horsham Amateur Basketball Association should not get a privileged viewing. 

“For some reason, the basketball association has been seen above other users,” he said. “We have indoor sports users across the spectrum and emerging who would love to have a look at the document.”

Crs Robinson and David Grimble voted to delay releasing the document while Crs Radford, Josh Koenig, Les Power and Alethea Gulvin voted to release it now. 

Mayor Pam Clarke declared a conflict of interest and was absent from the debate.