ALBURY councillor Darren Cameron has accused former mayor Stuart Baker of making "outrageous" and "ridiculous" statements about the fate of Lavington's pool.
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Cr Cameron criticised Mr Baker on Tuesday after raising media comments made by the proponent of a new regional pool in a question that he put to Albury City chief executive Frank Zaknich at Monday night's council meeting.
Mr Baker told Prime7 News in an interview last Thursday the "only reason we found out about the big spend that's about to happen at Lavington (pool) is through some contractors".
Based on that statement, Cr Cameron asked Mr Zaknich "if any consultants" had been engaged to "do anything in connection with the Lavington aquatic centre".
Mr Zaknich said a plan for the pool was endorsed in 2017 and there had been public engagement, before adding "there's been no engagement with consultants or otherwise in terms of that detailed design".
Cr Cameron told The Border Mail on Tuesday that the response from Mr Zaknich showed Mr Baker's comment was untrue because no contractors had been recruited and the process was not clandestine.
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"I think he's made outrageous claims which have been shown to be incorrect," Cr Cameron said.
"There was no element of secrecy in council's plan to retain Lavington."
Cr Cameron added for a former councillor and mayor to imply there was any secrecy surrounding the process "beggars credibility" and is "ridiculous".
Mr Baker declined to directly name contractors but said "they are doing background work on what's required, it's preliminary".
He queried the level of consultation, saying he had never had an explanation for why councillors had disregarded advice of consultants on building a regional pool.
"I've never seen that discussed, so I think it's fair enough to say it's secret," Mr Baker said.
He also challenged the council to publicly display the Otium planning report which he said showed the decision to retain Lavington pool "doesn't stack up".
"The points score (of the consultant) for doing the project was 11 out of 60," Mr Baker said.
"It's not a project that should be done."
The city has put $600,000 into Lavington pool designs.