By Mikayla van Loon
Votes to permanently close the Kilsyth Centenary Pool have outweighed calls to refurbish the decades old facility that has “reached its end of life”.
Yarra Ranges councillors debated the closure as part of the draft aquatic strategy proposal on Tuesday 24 October, seeing long time ward councillor Len Cox refuse the motion to decommission the pool.
It was ultimately passed in an alternate recommendation put forward by Cr Andrew Fullagar who requested the Hawthory Road land remain as open space and to make the site safe.
“We must be realistic and responsible and acknowledge that it’s reached the end of its useful life,” he said.
“This alternative recommendation [means] the Kilsyth site will remain as public park and recreational land pending community consultation for the future. Including this point in these recommendations will hopefully bring some assurance and comfort to the residents of Kilsyth.”
As the only pool in the urban part of the shire, Cr Cox and Cr Richard Higgins pleaded with fellow councillors to repair the pool’s infrastructure to provide a close, usable aquatic centre within the boundaries of the Yarra Ranges until a proposed Lilydale Aquatics Centre came into fruition.
Cr Cox urged councillors to not approve the alternate recommendation and to defer the decision until the community had been consulted about the closure.
“What bothers me about the current motion before us is instead of saying ‘we want to hear from you about this strategy, the whole strategy, which includes all the pools in our municipality…but as far as one of the three major pools in our community, we don’t want to hear from you at all’,” Cr Cox said.
The draft aquatic strategy will be out for community consultation for a six week period until mid-December, requesting feedback from the community about what they would like to see across the 11 aquatic assets the council runs.
Cr Higgins echoed Cr Cox’s concerns and said he supported the aquatic strategy being put out for consultation but “I don’t, however, agree that we have the right to permanently close the Kilsyth Centenary Pool without that same consultation”.
Based on estimates by built environment and infrastructure director Hjalmar Philipp, total repairs and refurbishment of the pool would cost in the realm of $6 million.
“There’s $2 million to enable the pool to be reopened. There’s a risk cost of about $1.8 to $2 million in case the dome fails while repairing,” he said.
“We’re dealing with the pool shell that’s leaking, 100,000 litres a week is being released and there’s a hose running 24/7 to keep that maintained and the cost of a new pool shell is about $2 million. So the total sum is around $6 million to invest to keep it going for a while.”
Mr Philipp said with no guarantees, assessment indicated that repairs and maintenance would give the Kilsyth Pool perhaps another five to seven years of life, with 18 months worth of work to be completed to make the pool safe to reopen.
Currently not meeting the council’s objectives to improve sustainability and environmental output, with the dome inflated by gas, officers have agreed it is not viable to keep the pool running.
“If we’re heading towards getting off gas in the not too distant future for our livable climate plan, there’s no way we can maintain it,” recreation and sport executive officer Cathrine Bennett said.
“We spend about half a million dollars on gas, keeping the dome afloat. So that’s always been one of the challenges there, particularly the rising utility costs,” recreation, parks and facilities manager Phil Murton said.
This was woven into the decision by officers and experts to decommission the pool permanently according to Mr Philipp.
“The objective measures that have been put forward in the [aquatic] strategy, which is around participation, inclusion and access, financial sustainability, environmental sustainability, what the team found throughout six months of analysis is that on all those measures, the proposal to permanently close stacks up,” he said.
“It would be disingenuous to suggest to the community that the team would consider, based on those principles, keeping it open.”
In the interim, Yarra Ranges Council has asked urban area residents to travel to Maroondah to utilise the Croydon Aquahub, which also has a proposal for an upgrade in the future that is not yet funded, or to use Monbulk Aquatic Centre or the Yarra Centre.
“We do not know for certain [that Aquahub will be upgraded]. We do know the pool is within striking distance of Kilsyth, four kilometres and we do know there are other pools also within that 20 minute drive time which is the accepted length of time to drive to a pool,” Mr Philipp said.
Cr Higgins said, having spoken to councillors at Maroondah, there was a five year plan for Aquahub, meaning an overlap would not occur if Kilsyth was restored.
He also spoke to a resident who had to travel up to 35 minutes to Knox LeisureWorks for their child to learn to swim and said it was unacceptable.
“Five years, seven years, 10 years, 20 years for a $6 million investment. That might give us the ability to actually get the private market funding that we’re after,” Cr Higgins said.
“We’ve heard from staff, it’s going to take a couple of years to build a business case. It’s not fair to just take this away without any pools.”
“If we don’t do something like this with Kilsyth, all of the people in the urban area will be travelling down to that grotty little pool in Croydon,” Cr Cox said.
Should an aquatics facility be built in Lilydale, estimated costs are in the ballpark of $70 to $90 million, requiring investment from external private companies.
“It’s been discussed by this council on a few occasions to build a new indoor heated pool in Lilydale but we’re not sure where we would build it,” Cr Cox said.
“What I want is to see is Kilsyth have some money spent on it. Our engineer says $6 million, $6 million compared with $70, $80 or $90 million is pretty cheap.
“It might only last 10 years at $6 million but that would give us time to get another new pool up in Lilydale so our urban area, the bulk of the population in this municipality, would still have a pool until we get the new one.”
Cr Fiona McAllister supported Cr Fullagar’s motion to close the pool and leave the land as open space and said she did so to find balance in providing for the entire municipality.
“There are nine around the table that seek to try and balance and make the right decision for the entire municipality,” she said.
“So our aquatic strategy seeks to achieve a balance where we do over time and yes, it won’t be immediate, get the right mix of facilities, indoor, outdoor, water play, warm and cold, all year round to meet the current and future needs of our community.
“A Lilydale based urban facility with growth particularly with Kinley estate makes sense. If we keep plugging the gaps and trying to continue to prop up facilities that are very aged, I’m not sure we’re ever going to be able to find the money to build an urban facility the community deserves.”
Closing prior to the vote, Cr Fullagar said “I’ve been convinced we can’t send good money after bad”.
Cr Cox and Cr Higgins opposed the motion, with remaining councillors voting to approve the decommissioning of the pool permanently. Cr Tim Heenan was unable to join the meeting virtually and there his vote could not be counted.
