Council to decide business model, involvement on regional aquatic centre

Bundaberg council is yet to develop a business plan for the multimillion-dollar regional aquatic centre.

MAKING A SPLASH: Concept plans for the proposed Bundaberg Regional Aquatic Centre.

Bundaberg Regional Council is planning to engage with third parties to run its multimillion-dollar regional aquatic centre.

Despite starting work on the major project several weeks ago, it was revealed in a brief meeting this week the council is unaware what the future management of the facility will look like.

Community and Environment general manager Gavin Steele addressed the council on Tuesday and said the scale of the future operation would require consultation.

He proposed a two-stage approach and recommended an expression of interest period followed by a tender period.

“The incentive is to engage specialists in this particular area, get feedback on an operating model and what this will look like,” he said.

He said research had already been undertaken with the help of other local councils who run and manage large scale aquatic centres.

MAKING A SPLASH: Concept plans for the proposed Bundaberg Regional Aquatic Centre revealed.

“Once we’ve got the expression of interest information back, collate it and assess it with the view that the next stage would be a tender based on the information we have collated,” he told the council.

Mr Steele said there were many possible business models to adopt, from total third party control of the centre, to a mixed agreement between the council and a third party.

“At the end of the day we will know by the time we go to tender what sort of business model we will be proposing and that will dictate the level of council involvement,” he said.