Mayor Anthony Marsh’s recent remarks on RPP FM regarding the closure of the Hastings Club have sparked a wave of public backlash, with residents, community leaders, and club supporters expressing outrage at what many view as a callous dismissal of a long-standing community institution.

Listen to the audio from the RPP FM interview

Critics argue the council’s true intention was always to repurpose the building, with years of speculation now fuelled by Marsh’s comments that the site will be prioritised for a “multi-use facility” for the broader Hastings community.

Kevin Miles, a long-serving committee member of the Hastings Club, didn’t hold back in a public comment issued in response:

“Clearly the council just wanted control of the building. After the debacle with the close to two million dollars spent on the elderly citizens building only for it to be condemned, the use of the Hastings Hall for other community groups being stopped, the council clearly is running out of suitable buildings.”

“The Hastings Club was supporting all these community groups at the time of closure—free of charge.”

Miles went on to raise a series of unanswered questions now looming over the building’s future:

• Will council install a new management team?
• Who will clean and maintain the facility?
• Will sporting and community groups be charged fees to use the space?
• Who will hold the liquor licence?
• Will electricity and ongoing operational costs be covered by the Shire?
• Will sporting clubs retain full-year access to the building as they have for nearly six decades?

“Do the sporting clubs get the run of the building, like every other sporting club on the Peninsula does during their respective seasons? Or do they lose access to what has been their club for 58 years?”

“The sporting clubs and members built the place. The Shire took it for nothing. The least the Shire can do is allow them to use it the way they have for 58 years.”

Local resident Lesley Kennedy also voiced her frustration, saying:

“Wipes his hands of the Hastings Club like they did of the Hastings Senior Citizens building. We are on the wrong side of the peninsula. Bring back a Hastings Council so we can become a great town again.”

Comparisons to funding provided elsewhere in the municipality have only intensified public anger. The Sorrento Surf Life Saving Club—a privately run organisation—received $1 million in funding from the Shire, while the Mt Martha Golf Club, also privately run, received $1.4 million over five years. In contrast, the Hastings Club—a not-for-profit organisation—received nothing, and was ultimately forced to close after council delays in carrying out critical repairs.

It’s not hard to see why the Hastings and broader Western Port community view the Shire’s inaction as either callous or incompetent.

The collapse of the Hastings Club and subsequent fallout has struck a nerve across the Western Port region, where concerns of neglect by the Mornington Peninsula Shire Council continue to dominate public discussion.