By Ruza Zivkusic
BRIMBANK City Council will conduct a feasibility study before deciding whether to accept a 25-metre outdoor pool offer by the State Government.
It has accepted $25,000 from the State Government to work with Sport and Recreation Victoria on deciding how the pool could best meet the community’s needs.
The moveable pool that will be built for the FINA World Championships in Melbourne in March, was offered to the Sunshine community in a surprise visit by a Sport and Recreation Minister’s representative, Henry Barlow, two weeks ago.
If accepted, the pool is expected to be moved to Sunshine once the event ends and will be incorporated into the Sunshine Swim and Leisure Centre.
A council’s spokesperson could not confirm when the council was planning to accept the money for the study and how much time it would spend on it.
Mr Barlow, who is a Wyndham City Councillor and who encouraged the community to accept the pool offer before the State Government entered last week’s caretaker mode, said the Government had made an offer and it was now “up to council to follow their process”.
The Sport and Recreation Minister’s office said last week the minister had not received a written response from Brimbank City Council.
Sunshine Community Pool Action Group member John Hedditch questioned when the council was going to accept the money for the study, saying the community was still doubtful about the pool construction going ahead.
“It’s in limbo while the (pool) study goes on and the study will go on past the election. At the end of the study is the question whether the council wants to proceed (with the pool) or not,” Mr Hedditch said.
But Nadia Ring, who is the president of Sunshine Mothers Group where the pool offer was presented at the meeting recently, said she did not feel “doubtful at all” about the project going ahead.
“We were promised the North Melbourne pool model and that’s what I believe we’re getting,” Ms Ring said.
The pool would be allocated to the site in Sunshine where the former 50-metre outdoor pool that was empty for the past 14 years, was demolished this year.
