Pool price rise would put cost of a swim back up to pre-covid levels

DUBBO mayor Mathew Dickerson has defended a move to raise the price of a family season pass to the region’s aquatic leisure centres.

The proposal before council is to raise the price from $260 to $518 for Dubbo, and from $210 to $484 for Wellington.

Cr Dickerson said the price of season passes was initially dropped at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The prices were dropped by half by the council at that time and the logic was, I’m guessing, that people’s ability to use the pool was being impacted by lockdowns and just generally not being able to visit the pool during that time,” he said.

“The reality is, that there are less than 100 of those family passes being utilised and those who do have them probably are doing squad swimming and getting a good use out of the pool.

“With everything going back to normal in the coming 12 months, we will be getting back to a user-pays system.

“Certainly, the price of an individual entry to the pool over the years has gone up by only a CPI increase, so it was $5.20 and then it was $5.50, then $5.90 and now it’s $6.”

Cr Dickerson added council could also be looking into why management of the pool was switched from an external provider, to being managed internally by council.

“There was no business case presented for that (change) at that time, to my knowledge,” he said.

“So that’s something that we could be reviewing.”

The proposed price changes for the pool are part of Dubbo Regional Council’s draft budget, which is on public exhibition until Monday, May 30.