A BLACK Hill resident is calling on the City of Ballarat to be more transparent in relation to the decision-making process which lead to the decision to demolish the Black Hill swimming pool.
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Polly Walters, a representative of the Black Hill Black Hill Community Progress Association, said she requested documentation from the City of Ballarat including costings of the pool over recent years, proposed budget spread sheets for the pool, as well as a copy of the survey of 500 people mentioned in the Aquatic Draft Strategy.
In emails seen by The Courier, Ms Walters makes repeated attempts to access the information from the council over a period of weeks.
Ms Walters told The Courier on Monday the delayed response from the council on the matter was causing concern among residents.
She said while she had received the budget, the other information was yet to be released by the council.
Ms Walters, a community activist in favour of retaining the pool, said she also wanted to see engineer reports as to how council officers came to the decision the pool should be demolished.
“We figure we have no way of moving forward until we have the information we need,” Ms Walters said.
“We want to know what is legally required to keep the pool open and it seems the more questions we ask the less inclined the council is to give us the information we request.”
Ms Walters said she met with Councillor Glen Crompton to discuss the Black Hill swimming pool on October 24 and voiced her concerns to him about the delay in gaining the information requested.
“On his advice, I now also requested a list of works that are legally required to be done in order for the Black Hill pool to be considered to be in a usable state,” Ms Walters said.
“I specifically requested this but there appears to be no record of actual costings on the pool over recent years, and the proposed budget provided seems to be based more on supposition or speculation rather than facts.”
At a council meeting on August 26, all councillors with the exception of Cr Belinda Coates and Cr Peter Innes voted to close the pool.
The council has said the Black Hill pool site would require a “significant level of capital expense” to be operational during the 2014-15 season.
A report by council offers found that it needed a $90,000 upgrade of the facility’s septic system and water mains and $53,000 for the replacement of the filter system, irrigation and fencing works.
The council said it would save $500,000 over the next five years if the pool was closed.
melissa.cunningham@fairfaxmedia.com.au
