Mail

Pool ‘costing a bucket’

By Tania Martin

9th February 2010 02:00:23 AM

YARRA Ranges councillor Noel Cliff has said that keeping Olinda’s swimming pool open could be an uphill battle.

“I’m not sure I can get the support from my fellow councillors to keep it open … it’s really costing us a bucket load to keep it running,” he said.

Cr Cliff said there was a massive amount of work that needed to be done to just keep the facility open.

He said residents had been fighting for years for the pool to be retained, but was not sure it could be saved.

He said the pool would be better off being turned into a water play area.

Cr Cliff said he had seen a really good example of this in Townsville.

“The pool is destined to go … we can protest all we like, but it’s not going to save it,” he said.

Cr Cliff believes a water play area would be a great place for people to socialise and would be available all year round.

He hopes the issue will be resolved this year as it has been “hanging around like a festering sore”.

Janet of Olinda said it would be a great loss if the pool closed down.

She said a water play area would not provide any sort of entertainment for kids and was definitely not something that could be considered sport.

“We want our kids to get out and be active and Olinda swimming pool is just what we need,” Janet said.

Her son, Sam, 10, said he would be disappointed in the pool closed down.

Shire asset and maintenance services manager Grant Jack said there had been no decision made on the future of the pool.

He said as part of the shire’s long-term aquatics strategy, the shire had allocated $500,000 to the pool to ensure the community has access to appropriate leisure facilities.

Mr Jack said the first stage would be to undertake community consultation.

“It’s anticipated that council will survey the community and hold information gathering forums later this year,” he said.