Goya Dmytryshchak
A petition signed by 1123 people has called on Hobsons Bay council to reconsider its 2019 decision to close the Laverton Swim and Fitness Centre.
The $64 million Hobsons Bay Aquatic Strategy 2019-2030, endorsed by the previous council in July, includes building a $40 million pool in Altona Meadows and replacing the Laverton pool with a $3 million water play and youth facility.
The petition states that the council endorsed closing the Laverton pool “without proper consultation with the residents of Laverton”.
“The funds that were required to build this centre were raised by our parents and our grandparents who lived in Laverton in the 1960s and 1970s,” the petition states.
“The money was raised through the dedication of the families in Laverton collecting money from everyone in their streets for years.
“This is why the residents of Laverton feel so strongly about our family pool – it was never the council’s to get rid of in the first place and should only be improved and grown in line with the town it lives in”.
Newly-elected councillor Matt Tyler, who tabled the petition at last week’s council meeting, said the aquatic strategy had not received much community input.
“The reality is that only 75 people across the municipality provided input in response to the draft aquatic strategy and the decision to close the pool was one line in an over 30-page document,” he said.
“I think it’s also important to say, we shouldn’t be pitting one part of the municipality against another part of the municipality.”
Cr Diana Grima, also serving her first term, told the meeting that her family had been among residents who helped establish the pool.
“There’s people from the community who raised funds to get this swimming pool for their great community and my father and grandmother were [among] them,” she said.
“I was privileged to use that as a swimming facility, a gym, and at one stage we even had Blue Heelers – a television show – utilise that swimming pool.
“Unfortunately, residents have come to me and my colleague, Cr Tyler, saying they had no awareness of this, it could be a possibility that it’s closing down.”
