Dubbo mayor Ben Shields reveals indoor pool plans
A 20-year failure of successive councils to deliver a public indoor aquatic centre for Dubbo has left the city lagging behind other regional cities, with the mayor saying “the stuffing around must end”.
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More than 20 years of local government dithering about plans to build a public indoor swimming pool in Dubbo is set to come to a head, with the city’s mayor declaring the “stuffing around” must end.
While other comparable regional councils like Orange, Bathurst and Wagga have opened indoor pools in the past two decades, Dubbo has failed to secure funding or make a decision about what indoor aquatic centre plans to proceed with.
Results of a 2018 survey of 700 Dubbo residents showed 72 per cent wanted an indoor public pool and sports group say talented swimmers and children learning to swim are disadvantaged compared to other cities which offer residents access to public pools all-year round.
After serving as mayor for more than three years and a councillor for 20 years, Ben Shields says poor leadership is to blame for Dubbo lagging behind other regional cities who have indoor public pools.
“I think we’ve had very weak leadership in the past who simply didn’t go out and attract those federal and state government grants to get things,” he said.
“Clearly the leadership of Dubbo has not been able to achieve this for 20 years, stuffing around and not having the political drive to get it done. We need to change that and it needs to be put back on the Dubbo agenda and get done.
“We’ve had many promises and we’ve had all sorts of ideas floating around but now’s the time to get serious about it.”
The idea of redeveloping Dubbo’s existing outdoor aquatic centre was first floated in 2000 and in the years since multiple plans, reviews, surveys and designs have been put forward with the intention of making an indoor pool a reality.
As mayor in 2018, Cr Shields reignited the push for an indoor aquatic facility and $29,500 was allocated to develop a business case and draft masterplan, the latter of which was presented to council in 2018.
In December last year, Cr Shields moved another motion for “a masterplan for the future Dubbo Aquatic Leisure Centre be prepared, with design concepts to be presented to council in April, 2021”.
He said the COVID pandemic halted some action being taken since the draft masterplan was presented to council.
“Before COVID we undertook a fairly significant visitation of many complexes across NSW, everything from Ryde to Fairfield, we even went to the Lightning Ridge complex.
“Then COVID hit so everything effectively last year came to a grinding halt.”
Cr Shields said after visiting other facilities, the council had a “good understanding of what works and also what is financially viable and affordable”.
“I’m not just after an indoor swimming pool, that’s not what Dubbo needs or deserves. Dubbo also needs a leisure based aquatic fun park.
“We need to make it fun for families and have those attractions, whether it be more water slides or a wave pool. I’m not keen to get rid of the existing facilities … we’d look to build next to it and expand the aquatic centre.
“It certainly wouldn’t be cheap but if we play our cards right and make sure the centre which we are proposing suits a lot of the requirements for state and federal government grants, we should be able to get a large portion of it paid for by those governments.”
A Dubbo Regional Council spokeswoman said the council was working with third party organisations to “ascertain plans for a new indoor facility” costing between $25 million to $30 million after a call for expressions of interest went out in January.
In documents sent out to interested organisations, council images showed a proposed expanded aquatic centre would be built on land currently occupied by basketball courts and the Dubbo Skate Park.
The documents noted as minimum requirements, a proposed indoor aquatic centre would include a 25-metre eight lane pool, hydrotherapy pool, gym, heated spa, sauna, lazy river and “wave feature”.
The council’s spokeswoman stressed that any development would be contingent on funding.
“Extensive work has been undertaken in the last three years in terms of masterplan development and improvements to the existing Dubbo Aquatic Leisure Centre,” she added.
“Physical works include a new splash park, new cafe with deck, enclosure of the entry, pavilion inclusive of a meet and greet and merchandising space … development of dedicated office spaces for staff and installation of industry water testing station.
“There has been an upgrade of aged plant and equipment, as well as removal of the former caretaker cottage.”
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