Waves Aquatic Centre: first look at redevelopment plans as council approve $55m vision
A war of words erupted at a Sydney council meeting overnight for plans to redevelop an ageing aquatic centre into a multimillion-dollar Olympic standard facility.
Hills Shire
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Hills Shire councillors have approved a $55 million plan to transform Waves Aquatic Centre earmarking a series of state-of-the-art pools with hydrotherapy and learn-to-swim indoor facilities and expansive gymnasium.
On Tuesday night, councillors voted to support the multimillion-dollar redevelopment of the 52-year-old Baulkham Hills facility, while approving a masterplan for the future inclusion of a children’s water play area and additional 10-lane 25m outdoor pool.
Hills Shire Mayor Michelle Byrne said councillors made an equally visionary decision to redevelop the pool as those who chose to build it in 1967.
“We have chosen an option that strikes a balance between recreational swimming and play, fitness, rehabilitation and squad training,” Cr Byrne told The Times.
“It also provides indoor and outdoor recreational uses, as well as providing additional carparking and greatly improved gym space.
“Council will now prepare a detailed design for a construction tender, with construction to commence in the first half of 2020.”
While deputy mayor, Alan Haselden, said the redevelopment of the facility has been on the cards for council since 2006.
“Swimming is as native to Australia as cricket,” Cr Haselden said.
“As higher density living increases across The Hills over the next 20 years, there will be more and more families without a backyard — so all of these things point in the direction of a liveable, quality aquatic facility for the future of The Hills,” he said.
“Council has sound financial performance, with large financial reserves, meaning we can take on a redevelopment of waves without putting itself in debt.”
Councillor Brooke Collins said there will be demand for another aquatic centre in Rouse Hill in the future, “but given the age of this facility at Baulkham Hills, who knows what you would find if you would open it up to redevelopment without major overhaul”.
“This piece of infrastructure is completely out-of-date and the council has the capacity to redevelop the facility without increasing rates or spending money,” he said.
“This is about future-proofing public facilities in the shire.”
But councillor Elizabeth Russo said she was left “disgusted and speechless by extreme blowout of costs”.
“Previous construction costs given to councillors just last month suggested the redevelopment would cost between $19 and $23 million,” she said.
“This is more than double our expectation and I don’t know where it all went wrong.
“I have raised concerns around the location of this facility, this is a residential area with limited public transport and parking — surrounding streets already have a huge number of aquatic users parking on them on a daily basis.”
While councillor Mike Thomas said he was never shown any designs that “meet the brief of the budget”.
“We are looking at more than double the cost of Hornsby’s Aquatic Centre,” he said.
“No one is opposed to upgrading the pool but we have to do it in a responsible way and this project appeared to be well managed until a month ago when the cost was blown out by two to three times the cost of other councils.”
A NBRS Architecture spokesman argued pools are “finite features and their costs are also finite”.
“We answered the brief required of us,” he said.
“It was clear it would require a greater budget and we have provided what the councillors asked for and done this as economically as possible.”