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To: Peter Gordon, president of the Western Bulldogs, and Katie Hall MP, Member for Footscray

Western Bulldogs: take your padlocks off the Whitten Oval gates

We're calling on the Western Bulldogs to take their padlocks off the gates to the publicly owned Whitten Oval so that residents can utilise the area for recreation.

Why is this important?

The Whitten Oval was once a public space - owned by us the public, for our use.

A while back, the Western Bulldogs negotiated to fence the area. It was apparently just to allow the gates to be closed for ticketed matches.

Fast forward, and the gates are now permanently locked. And the Barkly St end is now a car park for the players’ expensive cars. Meanwhile, the players aren’t even in the state!! They're currently in a lockdown hub in Queensland.

The takeover of public spaces by for-profit sporting clubs is ALWAYS a problem.

But especially during COVID-19 it’s more important than ever that we have open spaces to safely move around.

We're calling on the Western Bulldogs to honour the terms under which they have been gifted the use of our public land: to leave it open for us outside of training and playing times. That's how it was always meant to be, and how it works at Arden Street where North Melbourne train.

And if the Bulldogs won't play ball, we want the State Government to enforce the terms of the agreement that they signed on our behalf.

Updates

2020-07-19 15:01:01 +1000

Happily, the Western Bulldogs have announced that they will unlock the gates and provide the community access between 7am and 1pm. This is a positive step in the right direction, and a real testament to your efforts!

However, we can't see any basis for for opening the gates for the whole day, particularly given that the club are in Queensland. This is public land, taken on the agreement that community members would have use when the club aren't using it, and we're still calling on the Bulldogs to honour those terms.

We would really appreciate you continuing to share, and to ask the club to provide afternoon and evening access.

2020-07-17 19:19:55 +1000

100 signatures reached

2020-07-17 14:38:52 +1000

50 signatures reached

2020-07-17 13:21:59 +1000

25 signatures reached

2020-07-17 12:48:04 +1000

10 signatures reached