Mr Wood - asked the Minister for Education:

In relation to the old Bruce Stadium seats, can the Minister tell what has happened to the surplus Bruce Stadium seats and where have they gone?

MR STEFANIAK - The answer to Mr Wood's question is:

Further to my indicative response in the Legislative Assembly on 29 March 2000, I now provide the following additional information.

A large number of seats were removed as part of the reconstruction of Bruce Stadium and it was suggested that some of these units could be reused as part of the refurbishment of Manuka Oval. However, many of the seats had been installed at Bruce on curved concrete terraces and at differing heights, which required specially designed mountings. Most of the cost of this type of seating is in the mountings rather than the plastic shell. Moreover, the majority of these seats had been exposed to the weather for about fifteen years.

About 2,400 were purchased for $10 a unit and installed at Manuka Oval in 1998. Some were purchased by the Tuggeranong Valley Rugby Union and Amateur Sports Club and used in the reconstruction of Viking Park at Wanniassa, and some were purchased by Dubbo City Council. It is understood that there may have been some other minor sales but I have not yet been able to confirm details.

It appears that due to changes in Bruce Stadium management personnel, sales for other than installation at Manuka Oval appear to have been arranged in good faith and without being aware of previous undertakings.

The project manager for the Manuka Oval project has assessed the remaining Bruce seats and at this stage no final decision has been made on how many of the remaining seats will be used at Manuka.

For any remaining units which require major modification, the cost of this operation has been estimated to be only marginally less expensive than the

installation of completely new units. Given the age of the Bruce seats, already about the manufacturers' guaranteed lifespan, it may prove prudent to install completely new seats for the remainder of the Manuka Oval project

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

Bruce Stadium Management has advised that 1800 seats were sold to the Tuggeranong Valley Rugby Union and Amateur Sports Club for the Viking Park project at Wanniassa and 800 were sold to Bankstown City Council, believed to have been used in the recently completed Steve and Mark Waugh Stand.

No other sales have been identified.