For five years, Manly Touch has played music in between games during their Junior Summer Competition at Nolan Reserve. Now, nearing the end of the season, Northern Beaches Council is forcing them to stop.
The sudden music ban comes from an alleged noise complaint to Council. The music is played for two-minute intervals from 4 pm – 6 pm on Thursdays and Fridays with the competition lasting around three months from September to December.
Manly Touch President, Kate Perrett, said the competition was completely blindsided by the sudden decision.
“We didn’t think Council would ever come to us and say, don’t play music. It just took us back by surprise,” Kate told Manly Observer in front of a crowd of people and players who had shown up to the Friday afternoon competition.
“We’ve been playing music for the last five years and never had a complaint, even when the HSC is going on. We just keep the noise down, so we don’t interrupt the kids that are doing their exams.
“So, we thought, let’s put an online petition together and see if we can get some support, and then we can take that back to Council and say we’d really like to have some music playing again.”
The petition on ipetitions.com was created last week, 11 November Monday, and already has over 870 signatures in favour of reinstating the music on the oval, with many outraged with the decision in the comments.
“It’s only a short period of time a few weeks in the summer??… It really makes the atmosphere so good for parents and kids!! Such fun. Are we going to chip away at everything till life is soooo bland??” Claire Williams posted below the petition.
“Our kids and families love the fun atmosphere the music creates between games,” Rebecca New added.
“NO FUN police strike again,” another said.
Manly Touch has large sound systems situated around the Reserve which serve the purpose of delivering announcements, signalling the beginning and end of matches with buzzers and playing music between games.
Northern Beaches Council said permission is needed to play the music during hire periods to limit the impact on surrounding residents with approval usually only given on one-off special events.
They said they would work with the Manly Warringah Touch Association to continue supporting a successful competition while managing the impacts on surrounding residents.
“We have a really good relationship with Council. I don’t want to bad mouth them in any way because we’ve been working together for years and years using Nolan Reserve,” Kate explained.
“Playing sport is really important for all our kids. We like to get them involved in something active, and in the downtime between games, actually playing music, to have some sort of atmosphere and a little bit of liveliness.”
Players, parents and Manly Touch members said the music creates a lively environment and excites everyone participating at the oval – with one team of Manly Touch players being exhibit A.
“It pumps us all up,” one young teen said enthusiastically about the music.
“It’s so much fun, it just makes us like happy!” one chimed in.
“You get in the vibe. Like every day you’ll catch me like,” another said, proceeding to jump around and dance as the others joined.
The competition has two regular rounds left in the season and then four more finals games. Manly Warringah Touch Association said they will meet with Northern Beaches Council next week to come to an agreement.
For now, despite the complaint and Council’s demands, the music plays on.
“We’re keeping it till we’re actually forced to stop. We’re pretty confident that we’ll meet with Council, hopefully, next week, and that we’ll come to an agreement that we can keep on playing it,” Kate said.
