Parramatta Council vow to embarrass State Government until funding released for pool

Asking politely didn’t work, so councillors are trying a new tactic to get the additional funding needed to build the replacement Parramatta pool; whingeing.

The pool saga drags on: councillors vow to wave the flag out loud to get the additional funding for the pool. Picture: Peter Kelly

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Councillors plan to embarrass the State Government until funding for the Parramatta pool is delivered.

In Monday night’s council meeting, councillors from all sides voiced their anger over the most recent decision by western Sydney minister Stuart Ayres to deny additional funding of between $7.2 million and $10 million for an equal share of the $75.2 million pool. Independent councillor Lorraine Wearne pushed a new plan of attack, targeted at embarrassing the government.

“We need to whinge. We’re not whingeing enough. We need to get out there wave the flags in the air and make them embarrassed,” she said.

Cr Wearne said the decision by the government to grant Hornsby council $100 million to fill Hornsby Quarry was evidence that “whingeing pays off”.

Hornsby received funding to fill the quarry in June this year.

Hornsby MP Matt Kean and project manager Michael Van Rooyen. Councillors said the reason for the funding was Hornsby’s ability to ‘whinge’. Picture: Troy Snook

“Hornsby council (received the funding) for no other good reason than to shut them up … it’s because of the trouble with the boundary adjustments … and now they can fill up a quarry or do whatever turns them on and get them off the (government’s) case about consolidation.”

The council moved to reapproach Premier Gladys Berejiklian regarding pool funding and to explore other funding options.

The council will be presented with designs for the pool on July 18, along with a workshop on how best to go about receiving funding.

The pool was demolished in April last year to make way for the Western Sydney Stadium. Picture: Peter Kelly

Liberal councillor Andrew Jefferies said he had made the council’s disappointment clear.

“We should be telling the state in no uncertain terms that this is an absolute disgrace,” he said.

Fellow Liberal councillor Steven Issa tabled an amendment to the motion to lower the amount spent on the pool if the government would not contribute.

With nine pools within 10km of Parramatta’s CBD, he said the council would be wiser to spend money on the town hall building at Parramatta Square which has been reduced in size and is expected to cost $89.5 million.

“If council doesn’t receive the funding we build a pool to the tune of $60 million and the remaining funds go to the only civic place we have,” he said.