Campaspe Shire pools once again a hot topic

Towns where the pools are closed will receive a cash windfall, equating to five years of avoided operational costs, for township facility plans.

The agenda report, which will be delivered to council on Wednesday, suggests that the total saving of closing the five pools, along with the eventual closure of Kyabram and Rochester, would represent a five-year saving of $10.8 million.

These are the amounts of funds identified by council that are expected to be made available for the community if the closures go ahead as planned.

Tongala community will receive $804,073, Lockington $803,055, Stanhope $719,944, Rushworth $743,628 and Colbinabbin $421,918.

And it appears that the community will have a rather significant say in how those funds are spent in their own community.

It could be the difference between council voting in favour of finally shutting down the pools, which was put off in 2016 and again in 2019, or finally accepting the recommendation and injecting this cash into their respective communities.

The report to council recommends the plan for the allocation of these funds to a different town facility be commenced within three months of the pools closures and completed within 12 months.

Another component of the closure will be the consideration of the land where the pools are located.

The report recommends that, where possible, the future use/disposal of these sites be considered as part of the township facility plans.

In brief, it means that the town will not only receive a cash windfall, from savings the council makes in operating costs, it could also end up with an opportunity to use the land on which the pool is located.

It makes for an interesting discussion at Wednesday’s council meeting as the local government authority goes to a vote on the pools for a third occasion in less than a decade.

The regular aquatic services reviews have been a constant source of debate between council officers and councillors, who on the two previous occasions have managed to delay closing down the pools.

A recommendation was made at council’s August 16, 2016, meeting for the pools to be decommissioned at the end of 2019.

But, at the April 16, 2019, meeting the pools were thrown a lifeline and the council decided to extend the time frame until the end of 2021.

The future of the pools will again be a hot topic of discussion for councillors on Wednesday night when the council will decide on the fate of the pools for a third time in the space of six years.

Seven of the Campaspe Shire Council’s eight aquatic facilities will be discussed.

A report to council states the communities of pools ear marked for decommissioning in 2019 were required to put a plan in place for the future operation.

If not the pools would be closed.

Six recommendations have been included in the January 19 meeting agenda, which was made public on Friday and immediately sent Facebook into meltdown.

Community groups were immediately circling the wagons to again take up the fight for the future of their pools, which have been targeted for closure twice before without success.

Apart from the recommendation to decommission Tongala, Stanhope, Rushworth, Lockington and Colbinabbin, council will consider the closure of Kyabram and Rochester at the end of the 2025 summer.

The recommendation made to councillors is to avoid the “extensive” repair and capital infrastructure costs required to make the pools “fit for purpose” by closing them in three years.

There is one piece of good news among the doom and gloom for the user groups of the community swimming facilities — Echuca War Memorial Aquatic Centre will be retained for operation by the council and a 10-year plan established for it to meet community demands.

And as a sweetener, a final recommendation is to “allocate funding equivalent to five years of operational costs of those pools which are decomissioned” back to the community in which they are currently operating.

This is recommended to be achieved through the Township Facility Plan process adopted at council’s August meeting last year.

The report suggests that the pools earmarked for closure are “reaching the end of their useful life” and that pools are “no longer the hub of social activity it was for young people in years gone by”.

Council has considered disposing of the pools to community ownership in their current state, but the report suggests that operational, maintenance and renewal to a minimum industry standard is unachievable by the communities involved.