IN a warning to all small towns, and a real-life case of “The Castle”, the tiny western Victorian community of Glenthompson is fighting to save its swimming pool from demolition by its own Shire Council.
The Glenthompson War Memorial Swimming Pool was built by the community’s farmers, labourers, shearers and returned servicemen in the early 1970s.
It was managed by the community for over 30 years before being reluctantly handed over the Southern Grampians Shire Council in 2012 due to spiralling government regulation.
The Southern Grampians Shire Council has now voted to close and demolish the pool citing reduced patronage, costs and the pool’s age.
This comes despite an independent engineer’s report assessing the pool to be in “fair to good condition” with “a lifespan of another 30 years” together with a heritage report acknowledging the significant heritage and social value of the pool.
The Council has refused to release the latter report in full.
In an urgent attempt to save their pool, residents have formed the Glenthompson Pool Action Group to stop to the decommissioning given Shire Council Director Wellbeing, Planning and Regulation Rory Neeson told the Council Meeting the pool would be decommissioned “so it could never be used again”.
A request to the Victorian Ombudsman has also been sent, urging meaningful consultation between the Council and residents.
The Shire of the Southern Grampians has deemed the pool unviable despite over 1000 pool users this summer.
Councillor Katrina Rainsford, who voted to save the pool, said the decision does “maximum community damage for minimum financial gain.”
Action Group chair, Leigh Heard said having been built and paid for by locals, the pool was now set to be demolished after no transparency and fake community engagement.
“The 4-3 vote by Council to destroy our pool makes no sense from an economic or social viewpoint,” he said.
“It is in breach of the Council’s own policies, principles, and strategies to maintain significant small-town assets.
“State Local Government minister, Melissa Horne should be made aware of the genuine failures of governance here.”
Action Group secretary, Jenny Rankin added, “this pool is not the Council’s to destroy”.
“It is clearly against the wishes of our community,” she said.
“We thank the three councillors who voted to save our pool and we urge the four councillors who voted against it to rescind this disastrous decision.”
Country Fire Authority Glenthompson Brigade Captain, Gavin Leech said the pool had been invaluable in the past as a source of water to fight fires in the town.
Glenthompson Community Association president, Ray Allan who has made a deputation to the Council on the issue said the closure was a tragedy and another nail in the coffin for the community.
“We have very few assets left, and we need to work with our Council to ensure the ongoing viability of our town,” he said.
Past Pool chairman and Glenthompson Memorial Hall committee chair, Ian Murray added “the pool has been the centre of our town for many decades, many hundreds of kids have learnt to swim there”.
“We should not deny future generations the opportunity to have this pool,” he said.
Long term pool management member and the second person in the pool in 1975, Russell Mitchell said “this pool unified the community to build, it has been a battle to keep it open in recent years, but the community rallied and has doubled the patronage this summer”.
“This decision makes no sense at all,” he said.
“This issue shows the Glen’s community spirit is alive and let’s use this to help turn the town’s fortunes around.”
Ms Rankin again addressed Council’s ordinary meeting in person on Wednesday night reiterating the community’s disappointment and lack of regard for an independent assessment, or consultation regarding the decision to close the pool. She asked the question where the “accountability for honesty, integrity and due diligence” was.
She said a Council strategic review and assessment, despite frequent requests, had not been made public.
SGSC director wellbeing, planning and regulation, Rory Neeson said that advice regarding confidential briefings had been provided and that he was happy to resend them.
Ms Jan Burns also addressed council and said at no time during previous three engagements did Council say they wanted to decommission the pool and said all the people in the town had been left distraught by the decision.
“Every single family who actually helped build it is devastated,” she said.
“Nobody actually asked us did we want to close the pool or did we want to keep it open.
“You say it’s a $10 million dollar asset. It doesn’t make sense to kill it.”
She asked Council to “give us a couple of years to raise enough money so we can have it for the community; don’t take our pumps, just let us raise the money”.
Mr Neeson again responded and said that officers recommended the pool be decommissioned.
“To just close the pool rather than decommission it would mean Council would need to continue to spend money at the facility which was the reason why as officers we recommended to close it due to the high cost,” he said.
“Officers look forward to continuing discussions with the community that the projects that were identified can actually be worked through as part of the budget.
“This was a hard decision and one that wasn’t taken lightly.”