Campaign for Pool’s New Future
Skip to menuAs you know, Monash Council voted to broadened the scope of the Oakleigh Pool Redevelopment Committee to include looking at the possibility of a pool on the site. We need to persuade councillors, especially those on the Pool Redevelopment Committee (Stephen Dimopoulos, Gerry Kottek and Denise McGill), that the option to refurbish and heat Oakleigh Pool is the best one for the site. We need to make them believe in it. The committee may receive advice from the paid Council officials that is not entirely pool positive, and we need to counter that.
Below are some ideas to add to your own thoughts that could be included in letters and emails or phone calls you make to councillors. Do not put too much in one letter. It is better to write several letters discussing one or two points at a time.
- The councillors must be told that the pool needs to be heated (combined solar and gas heating would be environmentally preferable) so that the swimming season can be extended and the daily opening hours longer, which means greater access and more use.
- Look at how other seasonal pools work and let the councillors know. Prahran Pool (Stonnington Council) have friendly, dedicated staff. They have a welcome breakfast each year when the pool opens for summer. Noble Park Swim Centre (Greater Dandenong Council) have Aquathons, Learn to Swim, Giant Pool Party, Lap It Up Club and safety courses. Mildura Waves offer diving lessons.
- To counter arguments that the pool has low patronage, suggest that the pool could have been better managed. For example entrance fees weren’t always collected, change rooms weren’t regularly cleaned, the lawn was poorly tended, picnic table and benches were dirty, litter wasn’t picked up and the fence around the pool wasn’t always secure. All of that discourages use.
- Why wasn’t the pool integrated more with the Oakleigh Recreational Centre and Genesis Gym, surely a captive market? They were all managed by Belgravia Leisure.
- The local amateur football club has expressed interest in using the pool for pre-training sessions.
- The Piranha Swim Club would like to use the pool for their summer training now there is no 50 metre pool in Clayton.
- The Council should encourage more schools to use the pool for swimming carnivals
- Why not offer diving lessons? Mildura Waves does, and it is also managed by Belgravia Leisure.
- The learners’ pool and a toddler pool must be reinstated so that the pool is a place families with small children can once more enjoy. It will mean playgroups will meet, parties be celebrated, grandparents take grandchildren.
- Reinstate the volley ball nets, and arrange a few holiday pool games such as the balance pole that was so popular a few years ago.
- Advertise the pool as a great stopping off place for weekend bike path users.
- Encourage the Council to look at alternative funding, for example the State Government Community Facility Funding Program, with grants of up to $2.5 million for pool projects. (www.grants.dvc.vic.gov.au, or 1300 366 356)
- The population density of Monash will continue to increase, and the city will need more recreational facilities, not fewer. Why destroy Oakleigh Pool, and in a few years time be looking for a site for a pool because MARC can no longer cope with demand?
- Council must accept that Oakleigh Pool is weather dependant, and on cool days the attendances will be down. The pool is important not as a business, but as a social and community asset. It should, however, form part of an important recreational area, with the golf course, ORC, Genesis, bike path, tennis courts, Brickmakers Park, Scotchman’s Run Reserve and Caloola Reserve.
Please do keep contacting councillors with the positives Oakleigh Pool offers, and encourage other people to do the same. Try to get as many friends and family who live in Monash but outside the Oakleigh Ward to write. Oakleigh Pool is something the whole of Monash can gain from.
