By XAVIER SMERDON
POINT Cook residents are seething after their request for a swimming pool or leisure centre to be built in their suburb was knocked back by Wyndham Council.
As the councillors voted on the adoption of a new aquatic strategy for 2011 to 2016, a group of residents from Point Cook asked if they would finally consider building anything to better serve Point Cook families, as the suburb is often isolated from the rest of the municipality.
The strategy boasted three main stages, first to complete redevelopment works at the Wyndham Leisure and Events Centre in Hoppers Crossing, secondly to plan and construct a new indoor facility in Tarneit and finally to operate the new centre.
The only consolation Point Cook residents received was a commitment that the strategy would be reviewed in five years, which was later brought forward by two years.
Councillors Cynthia Manson and Shane Bourke pleaded for the review to be brought forward to now, without any luck.
“This to me is not a strategy but a document deferring to a strategy in the future. We don’t need to think about that right now, we’ll just wait until the population grows some more,” Cr Manson said.
Point Cook resident Loren Bartley said that Point Cook would continue to miss out if the council did not commit to building something soon.
“They’re showing that they don’t understand the issues,” Ms Bartley said.
“We don’t have anything and we’re paying phenomenal rates.”
