OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Council blows $33k on 3 ping pong tables

Gold Coast City Council has forked out $33,000 for three outdoor table tennis tables, in a move that has been branded ludicrous and outrageous.

Cheap ping pong tables can be bought from as little as $150, outdoor versions for about $500, while a top of the line, limited edition table was just under $3000.

Hope Island councillor Grant Pforr, who bought them for three parks using discretional funding defended the purchase claiming it was cheap.

You have to bring your own bat and ball if you want to use them, though.

Finance boss Cr Eddy Sarroff questioned if the tables were plated in 18 carat gold.

One table each will go in the Paradise Point Parklands, Charles Holm Park at Hope Island and outside the Runaway Bay Sports Complex.

It is not the first time the council has splashed out for ping pong.

Last year it sent a senior bureaucrat to the Netherlands for $4100 to bid for the World Veterans' Table Tennis Championships 2014.

Cr Pforr said he decided to buy them when the parks and gardens department sent an email to councillors that a company was offering them for sale.

He said they were not the same as the tables listed for sale above, which were for home or professional use.

"They're on a concrete slab. It's a thick steel mould and they have stainless steel nets. They have murals painted on them and they're vandal proofed," he said.

"That's pretty cheap in my books."

According to council documents they have a 10 year life and will have to be replaced and spend $900 a year maintaining them.

People will have to bring their own table tennis paddle and ball, which Cr Pforr said was similar to the arrangement at the volleyball courts in Paradise Point.

Cr Sarroff said it showed why the council needed to reign in its budget and divisional spending.

"I can't see how three table tennis tables are a priority at the moment," he said.

Division 3 candidate Gerry Thibault, who will contest Cr Pforr's seat at the election, said it was outrageous and no one must have looked for competitive prices on it.

"There was no counter check by any of the other councillors or by any council officers. My children could have picked this up," he said.

Division 3 candidate David White said he didn't imagine there was much call for ping pong in parks.

"The parks already have exercise machinery that's not used now. Who on earth is going to use an outdoor table tennis table?" he said.

Youth Point Connect Runaway Bay spokesman Derek Venske said he had not been asked by Cr Pforr if the group or area needed or wanted one.

"But anything that gets kids more active and not sitting behind TVs all the time is welcome," he said.

I'd like to see the tables though

there is a whole website dedicated to outdoor tables in Australia...
http://www.popp.net.au

it looks like Adelaide has got some outdoor tables as well...

http://city-messenger.whereilive.com.au/news/story/have-a-lunchtime-table-tennis-hit/

Haggisv, have you visited any of them?