General News
3 June, 2024
Council remains “committed” to outdoor pool despite funding application withdrawal
The completion of the Maryborough Olympic Pool Complex could find itself in troubled waters, with ongoing funding uncertainty offering no respite. At last week’s council meeting, as an urgent business item, Central Goldfields Shire councillors...
The completion of the Maryborough Olympic Pool Complex could find itself in troubled waters, with ongoing funding uncertainty offering no respite.
At last week’s council meeting, as an urgent business item, Central Goldfields Shire councillors voted in favour of deferring an application to the Victorian Governments’ Regional Community Sports and Infrastructure Fund (RCSIF) — which sought $3 million for the outdoor pool.
This decision was made after council noted that their $4 million funding application, submitted earlier this year to the Federal Government’s Growing Regions Fund, was unsuccessful.
Following revised budgeting, the cost to restore the heritage asset now stands at $7 million, and without federal support, council would have to co-contribute to the State Government’s RCSIF through $4 million in future borrowings.
In March 2024, when councillors agreed to apply for the grant, they anticipated borrowings of $1 million for the pool project — which would be the case if council achieved a positive outcome for both funding applications.
Now, in light of the recent rejection, Cr Geoff Lovett said it would be prudent to have “a very specific and strategic discussion” to assess future steps.
“When council took the decision to close the pool on occupational health and safety grounds, we made a commitment to the community to leave no stone unturned and to seek funding to reopen the pool,” he said.
“We currently have an application to the State Government for funding, which I have to say we feel very positive about, but I have heard that one of the funding conditions for the new pool will be for it to be accessible to all members of the community — that is people with all abilities.”
Cr Lovett said to make the pool all ability accessible, it could potentially mean the loss of one lane, taking it from eight to seven lanes.
“That raises questions in my mind — [would] it still [be] an Olympic swimming pool? I believe council needs to discuss. Are there other alternatives for us to consider prior to making our final decision? I believe so, and there is a possibility with innovative thinking we may even come up with an alternative proposal at a lesser cost to council,” he said.
“However, while still fully committed to the complex and its reopening, we must explore all options and they need to be looked at strategically and in the best interest of the Central Goldfields Shire.”
In reaffirming that commitment, Cr Lovett elaborated on council’s move to not proceed with the Victorian Government funding avenue.
“Last [week’s] decision not to pursue the State Government funding application does not mean we have abandoned this project — far from it — we remain committed to see this much-loved community asset restored and re-opened,” he said.
“The reality is that due to the high cost of the project, we as a council cannot fund this project on our own — we must get funding from both federal and state governments to do so.
“In the case of this project, getting funding from one level of government isn’t enough — we need both levels of government to show commitment to the project.”
Central Goldfields Shire mayor Liesbeth Long said she supported Cr Lovett’s concerns.
“Four million dollars is a lot of money to a small rural council — to borrow this much money would mean we would be paying this off over 15 years. This really pushes our financial limits in an already constrained financial environment,” she said.
“Put simply it would mean we wouldn’t have the funding we might need to support anything else in the community. We know our community has many different needs and priorities and to not have the funds to support anything else would be incredibly challenging, and in a lot of ways unfair.
“What we are asking council officers to do next is to look at other funding streams when further rounds of state and federal funding become available later in the year. We will continue to advocate to [both levels of] governments for the funding we need to see the Maryborough Olympic Pool Complex [project complete].”
While most councillors voted to defer, Cr Wayne Sproull disagreed — emphasising that council should contribute the required funds.
“We’ve invested so much money into the pool complex,” he said.
“I agree it would’ve been much nicer had we had the federal funding to reduce our borrowing. [But] it’s an asset that the community holds dear, it does need to be fixed and it does need to be repaired.
“I do understand that we have all abilities access at the indoor pool but at the end of the day, we want everybody in our community to have access to everything and so if that's a condition upon the [RCSIF] grant I support that.”
In his right of reply, Cr Lovett spoke about council’s dedication to complete the project.
“Just for the community’s benefit, I would like to reiterate that council is still fully committed to the reopening of the Maryborough Olympic pool complex — and the key word is complex,” he said.
“We talk about the Olympic pool, but it is just one element in a complex. And that complex includes the children’s paddling pool that we’ve just spent a million dollars on. It includes the [art deco] pavilion entrance to the [complex].
“I believe that we need to take our time to assess all options before we finally get to the final decision. And I would also like to remind our community that the closure was forced on us.
“We received engineering reports to say that if the pool continued to stay open, it was almost certain that some time in the near future, there would be a catastrophic breakdown of the structure of the swimming pool.”