OUTDOOR POOL PLAN NOT WHAT RESIDENTS WANT

DEAR Mayor and councillors of the City of Greater Geelong:

An outdoor pool designed to serve lap swimmers, school carnivals, water polo (training only) and learn to swim for older children (minimum depth 1.1m) and costing ratepayers $5.75m plus ongoing costs to heat the allseasons pool of a minimum $750,000pa (CoGG estimate), this is what CoGG is putting out to tender “within the next two weeks”.

Is this what the community of the north Bellarine needs or wants? Not according to surveys conducted by the North Bellarine Aquatic Centre Advocacy Group (NBACAG) and MP Libby Coker.

Overwhelmingly, the opinions expressed at two public meetings (November 2019 and July 2021) and the subsequent surveys has been the need to cater for older residents, families with young children, those with disabilities, all of whom will be effectively excluded from this facility.

Yet CoGG has not asked for feedback from the community and has ignored repeated feedback from the NBACAG.

When we have a federal election looming, with Corangamite being the most marginal electorate in Australia, we have a very real chance of obtaining extra funding to build an aquatic facility, not just an “outdoor pool”. The north Bellarine has been asking for a pool for 20 years (since the Clifton

Springs pool was demolished). Now we have a fantastic opportunity to build on the $10m obtained by Sarah Henderson in 2019 for an outdoor pool.

Why is CoGG so determined to rush this project through – a project designed for the 1970s, not the 21st century needs of a rapidly growing population?

Lee Knight, (former) member of the North Bellarine Aquatic Centre Advocacy Group, Drysdale