Small town of Millmerran to get $6m new pool after Toowoomba Regional Council spat

The Toowoomba Regional Council has approved a $6m pool for a regional town, but not before councillors had a heated discussion over how many lanes it should have.

POOL WORKS: The longstanding Millmerran Aquatic Centre.

A plan to demolish a leaking and rundown regional pool and build a new $6m aquatic centre has caused a massive spat within the Toowoomba Regional Council over how many lanes the pool should have.

The councillors voted on Wednesday at committee meetings to knock down the 50-year-old Millmerran Pool and replace it with a new facility on the same ground.

The existing 50 metre, six-lane pool has reached the end of its life and has been leaking 30,000 litres per day.

It comes months after the council’s officers drastically underestimated the cost of refurbishing the facility, having only allocated $2.45m in the current budget for the project.

In contrast, the median tender price from seven submissions for the works was $3.7 million.

TRC property services manager Kent Stroud said the council spoke with the community, with residents overwhelmingly favouring a new pool that remained 50m in length.

Mr Stroud’s recommendation was to demolish the current site and build a new eight lane pool for up to $6 million, unless the cost exceeded that in which case a six lane pool would be considered.

But Crs Kerry Shine, Nancy Sommerfield and Bill Cahill all opposed the proposal, saying Millmerran should get essentially a “like-for-like” facility.

“I don’t think the people of Millmerran will be upset about that — the pool they had, they will have again with advanced facilities,” Cr Sommerfield said.

These comments earned the ire of Cr Carol Taylor, who said the facility should be scaled up to cater for the future growth of the Millmerran community over the next 50 years.

“Why does Millmerran deserve less than Toowoomba?” she said.

“If we have a bigger pool, we would have more of the community using it to keep fit.

“This community deserves an eight lane pool, and no less than the community of Highfields or Toowoomba.”

Cr Shine’s amendment to keep the pool to six lanes passed, and the final motion was carried with just the dissent of Cr Taylor.

The new pool is slated to be ready for the 2022-23 summer season.