The $14 million allocated to Wangaratta’s aquatic strategy, including a new pool, may be thrown off course when the next council is elected.
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The council’s administrators used their unique position to close the Yarrunga pool in favour of a new facility at the Wangaratta Indoor Sports and Aquatic Centre and have admitted it was unlikely to be something elected councillors could achieve because of community pressure.
But all the candidates at Thursday’s council election forum supported a review of the strategy.
Luke Davies said he was concerned about the social disadvantage of Wangaratta’s Yarrunga area and whether residents could afford to travel to the proposed pool on the other side of the city.
“Yarrunga is desperately in need of a bit of love because it’s derelict and once a part of your community’s rundown, it’s easy just to go backwards,” he said.
Dave Fuller, who grew up in the area, agreed.
“The number of pools is important because we’re looking at a community that feels it’s been neglected by the removal of one and to potentially have another one built on the same side of town (as an existing pool), potentially creates an ‘us and them’,” he said.
Seven of the nine candidates standing in rural wards said they would rather use the pools money to improve roads, while Mark Currie and Harry Bussell said they would have to look into the cost benefits.
“You can make the best pool in the world, but if I can’t get there, it’s not worth anything,” north ward candidate Harvey Benton said.
Despite the aquatic strategy being one of the most controversial topics of the election and previous three years of council, about half the candidates said they were not across the details.
Wangaratta’s Olympic pool was also set to close if the WISAC facility was funded and opened.
Julian Fidge said the council could support both an outdoor pool and hydrotherapy pool.
“There was an aquatic strategy in place that the administrators ran roughshod over, I don’t know why,” he said.
“It needs to be considered and a more equitable strategy developed that will address the needs of everybody in the community, not just the needs of people in the northern side of Wangaratta.”
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