It is very much an issue that can deliver diametrically opposed views according to your own priorities.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
For the members of the Fish out of Water lobby group, the question of whether Albury needs an indoor, 50-metre indoor pool is a total no-brainer.
It believes it makes no sense for somewhere as big as Albury-Wodonga to not have a year-round facility that could, in effect, service the whole region.
Albury Council though of course recently rejected going down this path.
The council’s decision to say no to a mooted $50 million centre at the Lauren Jackson Sports Centre appeared to have killed-off the dream for good.
That was for a host of reasons, the extreme difficulty in getting government funding support near the top of the list.
But a big factor has also been the fact that Wodonga having a new facility in WAVES means that city’s council is less likely to show a great deal of support.
Whatever the reason for the idea not gaining traction so far, it certainly is clear that should there be a resurrection of it in future, it will rely heavily on detailed, long-term planning.
There has to be careful consideration of a host of factors, such as population projections, a detailed cost analysis of how much it would cost to run a facility and just how the facility would ultimately benefit the socio-economic fabric of the community.
Annual running costs have been the noose around the neck of many a grand town or suburban pool, to the detriment of genuinely essential services.
An indoor pool, many would argue, is more in the want than need side of the basket. Nevertheless, just a couple of months after Albury voted against such a strategy it is back on the hopeful list thanks to the raising of a possible funding source.
Albury Swim Club president Phil Evans has quite rightly highlighted the possibility of Albury Council making an application through the NSW Government’s $1.3 billion regional growth fund.
The club is realistic – it knows Albury cannot really go it alone because of the huge cost. But it would seem the idea is at least worth considering.
As Mr Evans notes, his information is the government is actually interested in such “ready-to-go, big-ticket items”.
For that reason the suggestion has merit – even if it still remains, at best, quite a fanciful one.