Fawkner Leisure Centre: Bell St Divide Poor suburbs made to bear the brunt of cost cutting

The people of Fawkner believe their beloved leisure centre faces the chop, which they say is part of a campaign to close leisure facilities in Moreland’s poorer suburbs.

Residents rally to save the Fawkner Leisure Centre.

The Fawkner community is making a splash as it fights to save its beloved outdoor pool which it fears will be removed as part of a council “cost-saving exercise”.

Residents staged a `Summer in July’ event to protest the $20 million plan to redevelop the centre, which would remove the outdoor pools and potentially replace the 50m pool with a water feature.

According to the council’s Aquatic and Leisure Strategy, the three existing outdoor pools were built in the 1960s and have reached the end of their serviceable life. The council’s plans include three options for replacing the pools, two of which involve 25m pools and a splash pool.

Damir Mitric, one of the organisers behind the event, said he believed the development was a downgrade in disguise that wouldn’t meet the needs of the community and the council was preparing to privatise much of the space.

The redevelopment plan was announced in February and also included plans to build a cafe and new steam room, as well as improved disability access for the pools.

Community consultation for the plan ended in May and Moreland Council is developing three draft concepts, which will be released in August.

Fawkner Leisure Centre

Mr Mitric said it was a blow to the Fawkner community, which he believed was not treated as well as richer parts of Moreland.

“It’s a cost-saving exercise … and I think they’ll look at suburbs that are more on the periphery, like Fawkner.”

Other members of the group believe the ‘Bell St Divide’ is happening, accusing the council of prioritising suburbs like Brunswick and Oak Park over Fawkner.

The Bell St divide refers to a colloquial demarcation between the wealthier, more gentrified suburbs of Brunswick and Northcote from the poorer suburbs of Fawkner and Pascoe Vale in the north.

Residents of Moreland’s northern suburbs have regularly had to fight to keep their public pools open, with an ongoing campaign to keep the Pascoe Vale Outdoor pool open and campaigns to keep the Coburg pool open in 2018 and 2008.

Mr Mitric said that the council had intentionally kept attendance rates low by restricting opening hours as a way of creating a justification for the downgrade and had ignored resident petitions to extend hours in the past.

Residents gave speeches and sang songs at the rally

Councillors Sue Bolton, James Conlan and Angelica Panopoulos have thrown their weight behind the campaign

Wills federal Labor MP Peter Khalil also threw his support behind the campaign.

“The current pool is in desperate need of refurbishment and I know how important it is to the local community, so I have written to Moreland City Council urging them to save the outdoor pool.” he said.

The council was contacted for comment.