Save Sunshine Pool

10 January 2006:
The Sunshine Pool crisis made front page of The Age in early January and our sorry story was also picked up in depth by 3AW and by Channel Nine News. Watch video

December 2005:
"Community Labor" team launched for council election. Justin Madden, Telmo Langueller and Brendan O'Connor hand out How-To-Vote cards for standing Labor councillors wearing ALP shirts and brandishing huge colour "Community Labor" posters.

Madden hands out cards for Natalie Suleyman who is now mayor again.

Natalie cheered and applauded when previous Mayor Sam David threatened gallery with cancelling the whole pool redevelopment process.

14 years and the 'Labor Team' has refused to repair or adeqately replace our 50 metre pool.

It is time for the community to rally and raise funds so we can fix the pool ourselves - like we did in the late 50's when we first built the bloody thing.

October 2005: Its 13 years now and our three outdoor pools are still not repaired. Reports by consultants have indicated the remaining 25 metre - 6 lane indoor pool is the most used pool in Victoria. It is so over crowded that less than 30% of the population bother going there anymore. And now $7.6 million dollars of community and State Government funds later, and Brimbank Council have applied for a permit to build a three foot deep indoor pool - and to bury the Olympic Pool and two other outdoor pools forever...
Brimbank City Council commits to meaningless community consultation.

October 2005: Brimbank Council rejects plan to build an outdoor pool. Recreation manager Carol Julian claims council will review the situation in 2 or 3 years time. i.e. It will be 16 years before they even consider building or fixing our outdoor pools. Two generations of teenagers won't swim...ever!

October 2005: Dept Victorian Communities survey indicates Brimbank is the least active of Victoria's 79 local government areas and has very poor recreation and leisure facilities and infrastructures. Will Justin Madden allow the councillors to spend State Government funds on a useless three foot deep pool with no masterplan, no thought for 2030 and let them bury hundreds of square metres of existing aquatic space?

August 2005: Council confirms intentions to build a 3 foot deep wading pool as replacement to the 50 metre pool. Council ignores fact that Sunshine has the least aquatic space in Victoria. Labour Unity Councillor Ian Douglas states he has had talks with union officials in council. Union officials say there was no contact and that bans remain in place.

April 2005: Sunshine Swim and Leisure centre redevelopment still not included in the Brimbank Aquatic Strategy...
Consultants refuse to include Sunshine Pool in Brimbank Acquatic Strategy.
Read more..

We invite all State MPs, councilors and residents to correct any information by posting to the pool forum:

Have a read of what the community has been put through over the last couple of years on this issue. (Keep in mind that the State Government has earned $30 million per year out of Brimbank in Pokie Money revenue alone but has been spending the money on the other side of town.)

Older campaign notes and photos

14th August 2003

Sunshine Community Pool Action group (SCPAG) meeting was held at the Sunshine Community Centre.
cnr Islington St and Wilkinson Rd Sunshine.

Click here to launch photos

Summary of Aug 14th 2003 community meeting posted at SCPAG website

Sunshine councilors told us at the SPCAG meeting last month that they have over 3 million dollars that they can use for the pool. But instead of telling us they will fix it Councilor Ian Douglas told us that they still might concrete it over and turn it into a car park! The cost of fixing our 50 metre outdoor pool was a bit more than the Fitzroy pool, about 2 million dollars as we need a new pump house.

The outcome of the meeting was that Labor MPs Telmo Langueller and Bruce Mildenhall announced that a pool reference group would be formed to look at the pool issue.

The reference group consisted of six meetings from September 2003 through December 2003

September 2003 through December 2003

SCPAG submission presented to the Reference Group on 23 Oct 2003: Download here (word doc)

The reference group identified that three pools were needed for the catchment area of 65000 people. This was raised in parliament.

Now get this: At the conclusion of the reference group process council announced that the three outdoor pools would be buried and covered with a car park and that a new inexpensive shallow indoor toddler pool would be built. The Labor endorsed councilor who was on the reference group announced that this new little 3 foot deep pool would satisfy 95% of the community (65000 people) That is when everything went south...and the community went ballistic.

Fix Sunshine Pool and Gym rally 2003

Launch more photos from the Sunshine Pool rally that saved our pool from being turned into a car park by council

Rally outcomes
CFMEU place a work ban on the site.

Fitzroy outdoor 50 metre pool is getting fixed. Brimbank Council will not discuss the Sunshine 50 metre pool and want to cover it with a car park. We do not need a 50 metre pool in Sunshine they say because it can't be open all year round. Why can Fitzroy have their pool fixed. Why are their five 50 metre pools in the City of Coburg. Why are we getting shafted by our councilors again?

15 Nov 2003 - St Albans pool, queues of people one hour long on 31 degree heat weekend.

12th Dec 2003 - Word was that the reference process was making some really good progress. A proposal for a two stage redevelopment for the pool was on the table. The first stage would include repairing the outdoor 'learn to swim' pool and include a beachfront entry, a new gym, entry and change room. Stage two, which would follow in 2 or 3 years time, would increase the outdoor pool water space including possibly a 50 metre or 25 metre pool.

Then we started getting the silent treatment, the new proposed plans became a 'private document' (what happened to Brimbank Council's commitment to Community Consultation? It was never there to begin with it seems....read on..)

Council went quieter and quieter as the reference group process drew to a close. We wondered why...

So the outcome as we have heard from the last council meeting: Council is only committed to a Stage 1 development. Stage 2 is not on the agenda all of a sudden!

Not only that but it appears stage 1 will leave us with a total of 780 square metres of water space. In 1992 we had 1850 square metres of water space! (not including the baby's pool)

So after all of this expensive consultation, revised planning, 'so called community consultation', hours and hours of work and rate payers money the council will gives us way less than half of what we had ten years ago! (Good one!)

Now get this: Ian Douglas said at last Tuesday's council meeting that stage 1 is now all that is required and that it will meet the needs of 95% of the community!

This back flip after the staging and 'secret' consultation process is over is very disheartening.

Not only that but we have heard that the council not only intends with the plan to put a car park over our 50 metre pool but now also wants to put a road over the top of it! This is no bullshit; ring up or email the council and ask.

It seems all the good work the reference group has done in putting a detailed needs analysis and submission to the State government better pools fund (which they should be congratulated for) might all be undone by whoever it is that wants to put a car park over it.

We are very suspicious about why the council is so adamant of putting a car park over our pool? What is the agenda? What is the real reason? Is it because they have approved some development nearby that requires more car parks? Some deep investigation is necessary. It is also time we as a community stand up in numbers and let them know (again) what we want as far as basic aquatic services go. City of Coburg has four 50 metre pools. Why can't we in Sunshine have a decent pool also especially in that almost 40% of the people in Brimbank live in Sunshine.

Brimbank has the worst access to aquatic facilities / water space of any major city in Victoria.
Brimbank residents have one of the lowest (if not the lowest) per capita rates of access to aquatic services in Victoria.
Brimbank has one of the highest youth populations in Victoria
Brimbank Council keeps 'pretending' that they are 'saving the pool' - 10 years have passed!

Pool Reference group another Brimbank council pretence at consultation? Why was the result of the farcical reference group exactly the same as what council wanted before the reference group started?

6 million dollars to be spent on building a car park on top of the 50 metre pool and now a new un-needed road.

6 million dollars to reduce the aquatic space by 60% to only build a small 2 foot deep toddler pool!

Why did the council submission to State Government funding not even list the activities that would be held at a repaired pool facility? Why can't our council get a basic submission right?

Why will the council not build what the community needs; why are they not listening?

Why would you cover a pool with a car park when it is already surrounded by unused car parks?

Why would you destroy recreational lawns with car parks?

Our pool is surrounded by car parks but Brimbank Council wanted to cover half of the site with more car parks leaving no room for a decent pool.

CAR PARK CRAZY COUNCIL:
Click here to launch the show!

COMPARE SUNSHINE TO OTHER SUBURBS:
Click here to launch this show!

-Brimbank has the lowest amount of aquatic facilities in Victoria and our local council and labour MPs wanted to concrete over the 50 metre pool.

- A whole generation of teenagers miss out on swimming in the centre of Sunshine. 14 dry years:
Pool Shame File

JULY 2004: Word came in that the State Government will provide additional funding but council have told us they are not going to apply for it! The consultants they employed advised them that we needed ten million dollars to fix the pool properly. (We now have 7.3 million) but council refuse to master plan this properly.

Why employ consultants if you are not going to listen to them??

Brimbank Council inform community at council meeting that they are not going to apply for additional funding or consider stage 2 development when additional funds are available and instead of fixing the outdoor pool they will fill it in.

Unbelievable! After they spend our 7 million dollars we will have only 1 new shallow pool and 60% less water space we had thirteen years ago!

Aug 21 2004: Brimbank Council employs another consultancy firm, Sykes Humphries Consulting, but advises them as part of their brief 'not' to consider the re-development of the pool!!!! Read all the gory details here.

October 7th 2004:
Two identical pools - two different municipalities

26 October 2004: Mayor Sam David says at council meeting that council is not interested in offer of additional funding to be raised by community endeavour and local business to do the job properly. "No we are not interested in that" he said!

CEO Marylin Duncan says State Government funds for sport and recreational strategy approaching 2030 will 'not' be applied for.

Ian Douglas claims 10000 citizens have been consulted with. The facts are that 6000 pool users were asked one question: What's your postcode?

September 2004 - Brimbank Aquatic Strategy does not not include community consultation or feasability study for Sunshine Pool site!

The huge city of Sunshine will not have one outdoor pool! Consultants refuse to include Sunshine in strategy.
Read why...

September 10th:
Brimbank Aquatic Strategy total farce - part 2.

September 27th:
No swimming again this summer - Why?

Ongoing: Sunshine Indoor pool packed to the boards. Citizens advised not to attend during peak times including Monday night.

Many residents we have talked to believe that the council is incompetent and that administrators should be brought in!

The councilors and project managers appear to have completely lost the plot and have lost touch with the community.

Go to home page for latest updates

Detailed stats, documents facts and figures at the SCPAG website:
Visit the Sunshine Community Pool Action Group website

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Sign up your business if you support fixing the pool
Local businesses that support saving the pool!!

Our local businesses are also behind the restoration of the pool. It is not only good for our families but also good for local business. Check out the growing list of local business people that want to see the pool repaired.

Why should everybody go to Highpoint on a hot day and fight for a car park when we have a pool in the middle of town! Highpoint pool is the same water space as the Footscray Pool which the government is closing down.

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www.savesunshinepool.com is a non politically aligned website.
The only party we support is the pool party we all have once they fill the repaired outdoor pool with water.

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