There can be little doubt that one part of the community is glowing with the satisfaction that it has been listened to and that its cherished asset, the Black Hill Pool, will remain in operation.
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There are some basic community assets managed by council for which residents feel a strong degree of ownership: libraries, parks and pools are among them.
While many will happily pay rates for their upkeep, the prospect of losing these same assets inspires a sense akin to egregious robbery. As such, we can assume that the jubilation of the Black Hill community is genuine.
In particular, we cannot doubt the joy of the children of the Black Hill Primary School who for at least a summer to come will know the languid anticipation of sauntering their way through the heat to a glistening local pool.
It is worth noting that the battle is not entirely won yet. There is still the thorny issue of the ongoing funding and ensuring the pool is if not sustainable then at least viable as a low-cost and low-maintenance service. One would hope that out of this sense of jubilation also grows a stronger sense of ownership and this in turn sees the value of the asset underlined by increased use.
What is also worth noting in this year-long process is that for a relatively small project the council received 349 submissions on its draft aquatic strategy, with 78 per cent specifically wanting the Black Hill Pool to remain open.
Perhaps there is also a lesson in this issue for some of the bigger council projects that have stumbled from irresolution to atrophy.
If the unanimous decision by the councillors reflects the popular feeling toward the Black Hill pool, it is worth asking how the aquatic strategy misread this opinion so badly in the first place.
The popular opposition of a policy is not necessarily grounds to make it illegitimate or necessitate automatic backdowns.
Tough and unpopular decision making is at times a necessary task of elected leadership.
But surely those same elected leaders should know where the public stands on such issues and make a decision in full light of those facts, rather than be forced into reversals after the event.
The council has made significant advances in its processes of community consultation and gauging where public sentiment lies in many key areas over the past few years, but this is one area where, from a strategic point of view, the process did not live up to its name.