SUNSHINE Pool campaigners will take their fight to the streets of Melbourne during the Commonwealth Games.
Hundreds of protestors are expected to take part in the protests planned for popular tourist areas as the long-running campaign for improved facilities continues.
“One of the comments that keeps coming back to the group is that there will never be an Olympic swimmer or Commonwealth swimmer from the western suburbs because we don’t have the training ground,” Sunshine Residents and Ratepayers Association (SunRRA) president Darlene Reilly told Star last week.
“With the Commonwealth Games coming that fact is highlighted even more.”
As part of the protests Ms Reilly said residents would use the games as an opportunity to raise further public awareness about the campaign and put pressure on politicians before the state election in November.
“We’re planning a way of highlighting this in a public place so that the tourists coming here understand that there’s a community that’s feeling like second-class citizens in Melbourne and we just don’t have the same opportunities,” Ms Reilly said.
“Even if we have to be on a street corner with our banners and walk up and down Collins St or Swanston St we will – we’re a community group, we have our flyers, we have our signs and they can’t stop us walking up and down the street.”
Plans for a new protest come less than a week after a about 400 people attended a rally at the pool.
It also follows a heated council meeting when Brimbank mayor Natalie Suleyman angrily closed public question time early after residents called for answers on the pool.
“There were quite a few people there (at the meeting) – all of who are feeling very much marginalised by the manner that the council meeting is run and the answers (by council) are not answered in full,” Ms Reilly said.
The packed public gallery demanded answers from the council after the mayor accused the campaigners of being a “minority group” in a paid advertisement in a local newspaper.
