THE City of Ballarat will review its aquatic strategy to determine the implications of reopening the Black Hill Pool.
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The review was announced by the council to a crowd of more than 50 protesters at the Town Hall on Wednesday night.
It was also revealed that it would be impossible for the pool to be reopened before the end of the year.
The closure of the Black Hill Pool was earmarked to be on the agenda for the council meeting.
However, the city’s chief financial officer Glenn Kallio said delays in bringing the issue back to the chamber were due to council officers reinvestigating the Ballarat Aquatic Strategy.
He said the council was determining if potential changes to the document would be detrimental to the community.
Mr Kallio also said the process meant it would not be possible to reverse the motion by the end of the year.
He said it was the council’s policy that a motion could not be rescinded without a review of the strategy which implemented it.
“The protocol is to request a review of the strategy,” Mr Kallio said.
“Once the review is completed, if changes are made, it would then need to be advertised to the public again for a period of 28 days.”
Mr Kallio added that the council did not have the finances to fix the pool without reviewing the council’s budget.
Cr Belinda Coates questioned whether the lengthy process was a requirement of local government.
Mr Kallio said it was not a legal requirement, but it was the council policy to advertise all documents and strategies publicly.
Black Hill resident and primary school staff member Victoria McKee said she had been outraged by the council’s decision to close the pool.
Ms McKee has spearheaded a Facebook campaign to save the pool which is followed by more than 2700 people.
“We rely on the council to be our voice,” Ms McKee said.
“The school gives the hundreds of children who attend it the opportunity to learn to swim, water safety skills and life saving knowledge. I know for a fact, many of these children would never be given the opportunity to learn to swim unless we gave it to them.”
Cr Samantha McIntosh also raised concerns about the council’s process leading up to the pool’s closure.
She said there had been a “confusion of messages” between the council, councillors and the public.
Cr McIntosh said there had been a lack of consultation and communication with the school and Black Hill community.
Her words were met with applause from residents.
The protest by residents followed the release of an independent study undertaken by the Black Hill Progress Association that outlined a number of discrepancies in the city’s budgeted costs for maintaining and running the pool.
Association spokeswoman Polly Walters said until the council put the issue back on the agenda, residents would continue to lobby the council for answers.
melissa.cunningham@fairfaxmedia.com.au