Facility Planning - LSV Club Support Manual

Part of the planning activities for life saving clubs relates to facilities. This includes the planning and budgeting surrounding the repairs and maintenance of existing facilities, as well as longer term expansion or redevelopment or replacement.

Facility planning is an act of improving facilities to foster continued success in the business. Your facilities touch every part of the business. Planning ahead means looking thoroughly at facilities and how to improve them.

a) Land ownership

Life Saving Club facilities may be built on land owned by the club, local council, or by the Government (or land called Crown Land), In some instances, it may be a mix of all of these.

The majority of clubs are built on crown land, which is land held by the Crown (the King or Queen) in right of the State of Victoria. Crown land can be reserved for a particular public use, or unreserved. Unreserved Crown Land has not been set aside for a particular public use. Most of the land held by the Victorian Government is Crown land reserved for national parks and state forests.

Managers of Public land reserves include:

the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DEWLP)
other state government departments
statutory agencies
local councils
voluntary committees of management

These managers are called “Land Managers” and are the key group for Clubs to liaise with around facility planning. For any works at the Club that require planning permissions, the consent of the Land Manager will be required.

b) Leases

A lease of Crown Land enables exclusive use of the whole or part of the reserve or a building because of the type of business or activity conducted.

Leases should be sought for clubs on Crown Land because longer-term security of tenure is an important factor to the user of the land. This could include commercial use or where major financial outlay is required (such as surf club buildings).

In 2019 LSV finalised the negotiation of a standard lease template with Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP). This template acts as a position in which clubs can adopt and execute the document without further negotiation with the Land Manager.

The adoption of the template by clubs will alleviate the requirement to obtain consent from the Minister overseeing Crown Lands when entering a new lease.

Whilst it is recognised that there will be differences across the state due to localised issues this lease template has been devised with the majority of clubs and their needs in mind. Importantly the standardised lease template provides long term tenure and offers the minimum statutory rent.

A copy of the standard lease agreement can be found at the link in the references section.

c) Licences

A licence is a non-exclusive use agreement over whole or part of the reserve. It is recommended that all clubs on crown land be by way of a lease and not a license.

d) Facility design

LSV provides support to clubs that are looking at planning their facilities. The LSV Clubhouse of the Future document provides guidance to clubs around room sizes, adjacencies, and design principles. It will assist clubs plan for refurbishments, as well as redevelopment plans.

Please get in touch with your Volunteer Support Officer for more information around what additional support can be provided by LSV.

e) Funding for facility projects

Club facility projects are funded through a variety of sources. Some of the more common funding sources are:

Club funds including internal fundraising
Grants (local, state and federal grants)
Local Government
Victorian State Government

If your club wishes to seek significant State Government, please get in touch with LSV. LSV will advocate on behalf of the Club to access these funds. State Government funding typically comes through Emergency Management Victoria, and as such LSV will need to work closely with both EMV and the Minister’s office in advocating for these projects.

f) Native Title

What is native title?

The High Court’s Mabo decision established that native title rights and interests over Australian land continued in existence post European settlement. The Native Title Act 1993 enacted in 1994 in response to Mabo, outlines the concept of native title.

Extinguishing native title

Extinguishment or partial extinguishment of native title is permanent and means that native title holders are no longer able to fully exercise their traditional rights in an area.
For LSV and its LSCs’ purposes there are two requirements to establish full
extinguishment. The LSC’s lease must: