At its meeting on Tuesday 27 October 2020 Council resolved to name the netball courts at the Forestville War Memorial Playing Fields 'The Margaret Cliff Netball Courts' in recognition of her community contribution to netball.

View the Council minutes, item 13.3, pg. 14

Community engagement has now concluded. Thank you for your interest.

The proposal to name the Forestville netball courts after Margaret Cliff was open for comment between 3 July and 16 August 2020. There were 141 submissions received in total - 118 submissions in support, 20 not in support and three neutral.

In summary, the majority of comments supported the naming of the Forestville netball courts as ‘The Margaret Cliff Netball Courts’. Many commented this would be deserving recognition of Margaret’s ‘tireless work for netball’, describing her as a long-standing and dedicated volunteer, with a true sense of community.

Whilst the 20 objections did not dispute Margaret’s contribution, they did not support the naming proposal for the following reasons:

• subjectivity of the selection process and determination of worthiness
• current site being a dedicated war memorial
• existing name (Forestville Netball Courts) contributing to the ease of locating
• costs associated to renaming.

The Forest Netball Club Committee has requested Council consider changing the name of the newly refurbished netball courts at Forestville War Memorial playing fields (known as Melwood Oval) to ‘The Margaret Cliff Netball Courts’ to acknowledge Margaret Cliff OAM for her contributions to both Forest Netball and the community.

Margaret Cliff OAM is a Life Member and a stalwart of Forest Netball Club, where she has served for 49 years and is also a current committee member of the Forestville RSL Memorial Playing Fields Committee (formerly a section 534A Local Government Act committee). She has held a position on this Committee for over 23 years.

Margaret has also been a valued Executive Member of Manly Warringah Netball Association for more than 25 years before retiring this year and is still an Active Life Member on various subcommittees.

In 2007 Margaret was awarded an Anne Clarke Service Award by NSW Netball for her significant contribution to netball at an Association level.

On 8 June 2020 Margaret was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List. The Honours List recognises achievements and contributions made by individuals who demonstrate the values that Australians hold dear – ‘Compassion, service, excellence, dedication, courage, kindness and equality’ – Governor General.