FOR many Shellharbour sporting clubs the 2015 winter season will be remembered as a frustrating one with multiple weeks of games and training lost to wet weather.
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On Tuesday night Shellharbour City councillors will be asked to adopt a policy aimed at reducing ground closures.
In April last year Shellharbour Council introduced a system where grounds were placed in three categories based on how much a ground was affected by wet weather.
Under the wet weather policy, category 1 grounds were the worst affected, category 3 the least affected.
Clubs with grounds in categories 2 and 3 have an option of paying a $1000 bond, giving the clubs the ability to make their own decisions in regard to ground closures, but running the risk of losing the bond should the ground be badly damaged.
From April 2014 until now the new system has been operating on a trial basis, with a revamped policy to be formally adopted on Tuesday night.
Shellharbour City Council's corporate policy director Lee Furness said changes to the original policy would mean a reclassification for some grounds. In other cases individual playing fields within some of the sports grounds will be given their own classifications.
Ms Furness said it was clear from the response the council gets to ground closures that sport was very important to the people of Shellharbour City. She said the council had worked closely with clubs on the policy.
"People are passionate about their fields," Ms Furness said.
Ms Furness believes the best solution was for clubs to take up the council's offer of paying the bond which allows clubs to make their own decision on whether the wet weather would damage the ground.
