Surf Coast Shire Council faces increased pressure to build $38m aquatic centre

Plans to build a long-awaited $38.5 million aquatic centre in Torquay are facing increased pressure as the Surf Coast Shire Council scrambles to find a way to cover a funding shortfall.

Surf Coast Shire ratepayers will have to help pay to build Torquay’s new pool even if another grant for the project can be secured, councillors have been told.

With pressure mounting to use the $30m promised for the project, councillors will vote on Tuesday night to apply for a further $4m from the state government.

That would leave the shire to pay the remaining $5.25m of a $39.25m project that would include a 50m pool, warm water pool, gym, group fitness rooms and allied health rooms.

That price is about $750,000 more than the project was previously expected to cost because the council will have to add four allied health consulting suites and an office if it is to stand a chance of getting the extra money from the state through the Growing Suburbs Fund (GSF).

After securing $10m from the state government and $20m from the federal government, the council originally planned to build the pool without providing any capital funds of its own.

But an officer’s report for Tuesday’s night’s vote proposes dipping into borrowings and redirecting $1m that was to be spent on a Gherang gravel pit.

The report concedes pressure is growing from the funding partners, and the shire’s hopes of securing the capital shortfall is “increasingly unlikely”.

“The GSF offers an opportunity to secure at least part of the shortfall but also requires council to reconsider its former position,” the report reads.

“If council fails to find a resolution to the current project challenges there may some reputational risk to council that may diminish its chances of securing future major grants, as well as the risk that the community misses out on the benefits offered by the facility.”

The council endorsed a project scope and capital funding strategy for the project in June, but was unsuccessful with a previous state government funding application.

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Geelong-based senator Sarah Henderson said it was “imperative” that the state government delivered more funding to the project.

“If state Labor can’t deliver additional funding and council can’t fill the funding gap, the Morrison government will have no choice but to award the funding to another organisation which will build a proper aquatic facility,” Senator Henderson said.

“During my discussions, I have identified at least one very interested party. We are determined to make this happen.”

Corangamite MP Libby Coker said she hoped that the federal government would not pull the funding it committed at the last federal election.

Ms Coker urged councillors to vote in favour of supporting the funding application.

Originally published as Surf Coast Shire Council faces increased pressure to build $38m aquatic centre