THE City of Ballarat was inundated with hundreds of submissions in its latest round of consultation on the Black Hill Pool.
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The council said it received 349 submissions following the recent retesting of the Ballarat Aquatic Strategy.
The move to re-exhibit the strategy was sparked by months of public outcry following last year’s closure of the iconic pool.
Black Hill Progress Association’s Polly Walters said there was still “high emotion” in the community surrounding the decision to decommission the pool.
Days ago, Black Hill Primary School pupils hung a banner on the gates of the pool which called on the council to reopen it.
Ms Walters said many residents felt the latest round of consultation was flawed.
“A lot of residents were particularly disgusted with the online survey,” she said. “They found it very biased and leant towards closing the pool.
“Many also felt they weren’t able to freely express what they wanted to say in the way they wanted to say it because of the way the survey was structured.”
Ms Walters said she was still waiting for answers on the significant discrepancies between the city’s budgeted costs for maintaining and running the pool and an independent study undertaken by the Black Hill Progress Association.
Among the inconsistencies in the council’s report was a five-hour extension of opening hours per day.
The increased hours pushed costs of operating the pool up by more than $20,000 per annum.
Ms Walters said repeated attempts to obtain “actual costings” on the pool from the council have been fruitless.
“We’ve made many attempts to obtain that information through the councillors or contacting senior council officers directly and we have not got anywhere,” she said.
The Courier requested details on how many submissions were in favour or opposed to the strategy, but the council declined to disclose any details.
The City of Ballarat said in a statement that all the submissions received would be presented to councillors at a council meeting in the coming months.
It also said all submitters would be formally notified of the date and it would be advertised on the City of Ballarat website.
melissa.cunningham@fairfaxmedia.com.au
