Cr Coates has accused her fellow councillors of using “slippery” and “decisive” language, slanted towards shutting down the pool, before it was decommissioned.

“What has deeply concerned me throughout this entire process is the tone councillors and officers have used surrounding the Black Hill Pool,” Cr Coates said at a council meeting on Wednesday night. 

“I have not seen that type of biased language used towards any other decision in my position as councillor in regard to another community asset.” 

Cr Coates said councillors and officers had implied their biased stance even before conducting consultation, which she argued was fundamentally flawed from the beginning.

Cr Coates went on to accuse the council of conducting “slanted consultation” on the closure of the pool which failed to gauge the community’s views or engage with those who were most impacted.

“The detriment this decision would have on the community has been completely ignored,” Cr Coates said.

“In my view the council has been extremely disrespectful to the community involved.” 

Cr Coates’ comments sparked a split between councillors, including Cr Vicki Coltman, who vehemently rejected Cr Coates’ claims.

Cr Coltman said she was “highly offended” by the accusations because it implied that something “dodgy or underhanded” had occurred.

“It implies there has been incidents of misconduct or cor-

ruption that is simply not the case,” Cr Coltman said. “There was nothing underhanded about the decision process.

“I have been a part of this process for almost two years.

“We have listened to many members of the public and as a council we constantly have to make tough decisions for the betterment of the entire community and at times those decisions are unpopular, but that does not signal that anything dodgy has occurred.”

Cr Coltman said closing pools was never a popular decision but consideration had to be made to children living in outer areas like Buninyong and Sebastopol who had no access to a public pools.

However, Cr Coates said she believed the latest round of consultation was simply “finding reasons to justify the status quo” rather than improving dialogue with the community on what compromise could be reached between the council and residents.

melissa.cunningham@fairfaxmedia.com.au