Albury Council to discuss extension of Albury Swim Club season and renewal of Aligned Leisure contract

It is recommended the council lengthen the normal operating hours to run from early September this year to late June in 2023.

The approximate cost will be $180,000.

Richmond Football Club-owned Aligned Leisure signed a five-year contract to manage all four public pools in Albury and Wodonga in 2018 and started its tenure with a net loss of $262,000.

The 2019-20 financial year resulted in a loss of $288,000 for Aligned Leisure, with smoke from the nearby Black Summer bushfires and the forced closure of aquatic facilities in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Income was significantly down in 2020-21, but Aligned Leisure was able to turn a profit of $200,000 due to access of more than $870,000 from the JobKeeper subsidy.

Aligned Leisure has forecast an operating loss of more than $400,000 for the 2021-22 financial year based on closures early in the period and has made requests to Albury and Wodonga councils to reduce service levels to offset the projected losses.

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A 12-month contract extension has been tabled by Albury Council to continue its partnership with Aligned Leisure to operate a longer swim season.

The figures have been included in Albury Council's agenda for Monday night's meeting, while Aligned Leisure contract discussions have been listed under confidential business by their Wodonga counterparts.

Wodonga Council stated "this report contains confidential business information about Aligned Leisure that, if publicly disclosed, would unreasonably expose the business to disadvantage" to justify its confidential status.

Albury Council's report noted service level and presentation of the pools had dropped off during the peak summer period, driven by staffing difficulties.

"It is important to note that when staff shortages occurred due to COVID isolation requirements or other reasons, Aligned Leisure was able to balance the staffing across the four aquatics facilities in Albury-Wodonga," the report stated.

"When management staff were unavailable for an extended period, Aligned Leisure was able to substitute management staff from their other venues including Mildura, Melbourne and Eurobodalla."

Swimmer Tam McGovern petitioned Wodonga Council earlier this year to have WAVES operate over winter because it was too crowded at the city's indoor alternative, at the leisure centre, which offers only a 25-metre indoor pool.

"It's too hot up there and the chlorine is too strong. It's just terrible," he said.

"I normally swim five days a week, but I've cut it back to two days because I don't like it in there.

"It's hard to work it out because the population is in such close proximity between Albury and Wodonga and is expanding all the time on both sides of the river.

"They should cater for the people because there's a lot more people out exercising than there was 10 years ago."

Mr McGovern said he was keen to revisit his petition to have WAVES open for longer.

"I've got 98 signatures and a lot of them were from Albury and I would have got a lot more because it was so late in the season when I put it in," he said.

At its March meeting, Albury Council resolved to keep Albury Swim Centre open an extra two weeks before it closed on May 8.

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