By Christine
SAVE Footscray Pool supporters gathered on the steps of the Buckley St swim centre last Sunday vowing to continue their fight, despite the closure of the site last Friday.
About 40 hardy supporters defied icy wind and rain to cheer Dave O’Neil, president of the Save Footscray Pool, as he read out the eight objectives of their campaign.
These included asking the federal and state governments to allocate funds to “provide an aquatic and recreational facility readily accessible to citizens in the southern section of the City of Maribyrnong”.
And the group also called on Bruce Mildenhall, MP for Footscray, and Ted Baillieu, leader of the state opposition, to support the objective in parliament.
Mr O’Neil condemned the Bracks Government for “the priority given to elite sports and major events at the expense of local, community activities such as swimming”.
He asked that this be rectified urgently, in the interests of community health and well-being.
Martin Kingham, secretary of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, also spoke at the rally, and he reiterated the union’s ban on the demolition of any part of the Footscray Swim Centre.
Mr Kingham agreed that it was a risky thing to do but he said the union, which has 28,000 members in Melbourne, fully supported the Save Footscray Pool campaign.
He explained that workers could be heavily fined for such action under new federal legislation.
But Mr Kingham said the ban was put in place five years ago in a bid to force discussions on saving the Footscray Swim Centre.
He said those discussions still needed to take place because the community needed a pool, even if it was on another site in the southern half of the municipality.
Maribyrnong City councillors Janis Rossiter and Catherine Cumming also spoke at the rally.
And fellow councillor Dina Lynch was there to hear speeches.
