Mannum swimming pool closes as Mid Murray Council tightens its belt
One of the River Murray communities ravaged by floods two years ago is again reeling following the closure of its only public swimming pool.
The only public swimming pool in the River Murray town of Mannum’s will be closed this summer as part of a local council cost-cutting program.
The pool, part of Mannum Community College and owned by the Education Department, will no longer be open to the public after a decision mayor Simone Bailey has described as ‘heartbreaking’.
Ms Bailey said closing the pool would only save $32,000 a year, but this was the sort of decision her cash-strapped Mid Murray Council was forced to make as it struggled to make ends meet.
“It’s heartbreaking, because other (bigger) councils would probably waste that sort of money in a luncheon or at a training course or something similar,” she said. “It’s really, really sad.”
The decision to close the pool means any of the town’s 3000 or so residents wanting to use a swimming pool will need to travel to Murray Bridge or Cambrai, both about a 30-minutes away by car. The Mannum pool will still be used by the school.
Ms Bailey said the council was cutting back on expenses in an effort to keep rates as low as possible to overcome a crippling lack of financial assistance grants delivered to regional councils such as hers.
She said her council was assessed as needing $11m last year, but received just $4m in financial assistance grants. Much of the council’s revenue was gobbled up maintaining its 3383km road network, a burden shared by just 10,000 ratepayers.
Hence the council had to make the tough decision of choosing between closing the Mannum or Cambrai pools. Last summer, Mannum was open three days a week and Cambrai was open four days a week. Cambrai will remain open four days a week this summer.
The Cambrai pool is larger and has historically been better patronised than Mannum. It also services a wider area, attracting patrons from Sedan, Black Hill and Keyneton.
Ms Bailey said the future of the council’s 15 water standpipes, from which people not connected to SA Water have been able to access water, was now in the gun as it continued its cost-cutting measures.
The council has also cut back the opening hours of a community library at Morgan, a measure that will save $6000.
“We’re just trying to get sustainable so that we don’t have to have massive rate increases,” Ms Bailey said.
Member for Hammond Adrian Pederick said it was “ridiculous” that Mid Murray Council found itself in this “penny pinching condition”.
“The Federal Government really needs to have a good look at the federal assistance grants program to make sure that small regional councils that do not have a big rate base can get on supplying the services they need to get on,” he said.
“We just can’t have penny pinching at this scale. I’m not having a crack at the council, they’re doing what they can do to save money, but it just gets ridiculous in the end.”
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Originally published as Mannum swimming pool closes as Mid Murray Council tightens its belt
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