Cr Darren Cameron has submitted a notice of motion to council’s next meeting on Monday, raising the possibility of a cross-border committee to replace the present Albury-only aquatic facility committee, which has largely been inactive since early last year.

Aligned Leisure has taken over managing Albury and Wodonga pools for the next five years, but met strong resistance from user groups to plans to introduce across the board lane hire fees.

The move has been put on hold for 12 months pending more discussions between Aligned Leisure and swimming and water polo clubs which feared they would be forced to close down if the fees were applied.

Cr Cameron is hoping the cross-border advisory committee can be made up of representatives from all swimming and water polo clubs, Albury and Wodonga councillors and, if possible, casual pool users from both cities.

General manager Frank Zaknich has been asked to prepare a report on the possibility of the committee being formed and in the interim the former Albury aquatics facility advisory committee resume meeting.

“The committee has not formally met since May 2017,” Cr Cameron said.

“This is not good enough.

“We need to make sure we are in close consultation with the pool users, especially with the introduction of the new Aligned Leisure contract which has a completely new format.

“We need to develop a cross-border committee, but in the meantime the current committee must continue to meet.

“The fact there has not been a quorum since May 2017 is not the fault of council’s representative, Cr Glachan, but we need to establish why people are not attending these meetings.”

Stuart Baker, the spokesman for an aquatics action group launched to fight the introduction of lane hire fees, acknowledged Cr Cameron’s efforts to resolve the issues between pool users and Aligned Leisure.

But he said the group he was part of could adequately do the role proposed.

“The aquatics action group is speaking on behalf of swimming and water polo clubs already,” Mr Baker said.

“We are already a cross-border group representing those clubs and to hand pick their own is not the answer.

“The answer is to start speaking with us and not re-invent the wheel.

“But the more interest councillors take, the more they can understand the issues and we can all get onto the same page.”