"Pools proposal irks MP"

Friends of Coburg Olympic Pool thank Lizzie Blandthorn for writing to Moreland City Council regarding their Draft Aquatic Strategy 2018-38 and in particular about the two outdoor pools including Coburg Olympic Swimming Pool. Lizzie highlighted the seemingly cursory treatment of our outdoor pools in the Strategy recommendations.

Friends of Coburg Olympic Pool was actively involved in the consultation for the draft strategy including:
• attending a focus group for the Coburg pools
• encouraging locals to get involved in the Our Say interactive portal
• asking on the Friends of Coburg Olympic Pool Facebook page what people wanted and working with Council to ensure they were reading the large volume of considered comments.

Throughout all the of various consultation processes the strong message coming through was that our wonderful pool needs to be heated to maximise its use. However reading the Strategy it was as if the consultation didn’t occur. Even though the background paper says the pool is near the end of its life, there is no vision or planning for anything at all for the pool, let alone heating, over the next TWENTY years.

We note the social media strategy for Active Moreland pools doesn’t include Coburg Olympic Pool. We want to see proactive planning and promotion for our well loved pool not merely reactive repairs.

The twenty year ‘plan’ seems to be to watch the physical decline of the pool and patch up when necessary. This is not good enough.

Good to see this was covered on page 5 of this week’s Moreland Leader.

EMAIL MORELAND LEADER: 
moreland@leadernewspapers.com.au

READ:
AQUATIC AND LEISURE STRATEGY 2018-38
BACKGROUND PAPER

Have your say about our pool!

Now is the time to have your say about the Coburg Olympic Swimming Pool we all know and love. Read the comments too - I think a lot of us have similar concerns, opening times, water temperature, shade, how fabulous it is... Please speak up and ask your friends to have their say too.

Moreland City Council is developing and Aquatic and Leisure Strategy to help guide the future of the service for the next 10 years and beyond. This will provide a strategic document for the planning, provision and direction of Council's six aquatic and leisure facilities.

This will help guide:

• How we prioritise planned maintenance/ renewal works

• How we prioritise future investment in to facilities

• How we provide health and wellness services

• How we provide safe and accessible facilities

• How we provide cost efficient and finacially sustainable facilities.

Throughout the development of the strategy there will be a number of opportunities for everyone to have their say.

More info here.

Coburg Olympic Pool excluded from heritage overlay

A recent report has recommended that Coburg Olympic Pool be subject to a Heritage Overlay. However as reported in the Moreland Leader on 13/06/2011 Moreland City council did not accept those recommendations in relation to our pool.

You can read the North of Bell Street Heritage Study here or at the planning desk at the Moreland Civic C. The pool is mentioned on pages109-113. Page 110 states that Coburg Olympic Pool is one of only a few municipal swimming complexes dating from the 1950s and 1960s in Victoria to survive largely intact. The conservation guidelines allow plenty of scope for modifications of the complex to allow the important objective, ie the use of the complex as a public pool to continue.

Read the Friends of Coburg Olympic Pool letter to Moreland Council below.

FCoP Letter to Councillors Regarding Heritaqge Study 15/06/2011

The Coburg Initiative

by Kitty Owens
Coburg Olympic Pool is back in the spotlight due to a suggested  'redevelopment' as a result of the Coburg Initiative. The Coburg Initiative is a Moreland Council/Equiset (Grollo)planned development of inner Coburg. A draft concept plan which features Coburg Leisure Centre(currently a well used indoor pool/gym/exercise space) 'relocated' has been launched for comment - the plan is apparently to move the leisure centre to the site of the Olympic Pool - so that apartments can be built on the Leisure Centre site in central Coburg.


Moreland City Council Mayor, Lambros Tapinos has stated that he thought it was 'in the long term interests of the council and the community to have the indoor and outdoor pools in one location".


Friends of Coburg Olympic Pool are of the view that the two facilities serve different purposes, and that there is great value to the community in investing in the pools at the two sites. The Coburg Leisure Centre is well located for drop in recreational activities, in a transport and activity hub, whereas Coburg Olympic Pool is a destination for a riverside outdoor swimming and picnic experience. Friends of Coburg Olympic Pool would like to see minor improvements at the Coburg Olympic Pool site but do not want to see a mega indoor facility take over the 1950s suburban pool feel and riverside ambience.

To have your say on the proposed vision you can:

contact the Mayor, Lambros Tapinos
Mobile: 0433 419 075
Phone: (03) 9240 1193
Fax: (03) 9240 1179
Email: ltapinos@moreland.vic.gov.au

write to the Moreland Leader
make a comment here or
write to the Moreland Leader at moreland@leadernewspapers.com.au or
by post to The editor, Moreland Leader, 2nd Floor, 192 High Street, Northcote 3070  

Unfortunately the opportunity to comment online on The Coburg Initiative has passed but you can see what others have written here.

Looks like our beautiful pool is under threat again.

the diving board that was

by Janet Grigg
This is a picture of the Coburg Olympic Pool diving board I took last summer. It is suddenly, this week, no longer there. Without any warning, an important piece of local history has been reduced to rubble.



This diving board had been closed since 2003 as the the Moreland Council stated that it did not comply with FINA safety regulations (international governing body for swimming. The rungs on the high board had been removed, presumably so that until the pool closed in 2006, there was no danger of misuse. There has been talk of the diving boards being replaced with something that met current safety standards, but the Friends of Coburg Olympic Pool have believed that the diving boards have significant heritage value. The diving boards could have been left as they were, in their shapely glory, pending a heritage survey, and the black diving pool fence extended to allow for another, useable diving platform to be installed at the same time. It didn't have to be an either/or proposition.

Now we will no longer see the glint of steel amongst the trees on a hot day. Even if the towers were to be reconstructed in a similar style, something of their essence, what made them unique in the first place will still be lost forever.

More pictures of the diving board here. If anyone has any pictures of the diving board (old or recent), we'd love to take a copy and record this part of the pool's history for the future. Please email me if you can help out in this way. 

It's still going to be great at the pool this summer, and we're going to focus on the positives, but as I said before it didn't have to be this way.

Pool Together - wasn't it fantastic!

Last Sunday about 520 locals turned up on a frosty afternoon to pool together and celebrate that funds have been included the Moreland council's draft budget to re-open our favourite outdoor pool in Coburg for the next swimming season. The Newlands Neighbourhood House was packed to the rafters with good humoured, happy people. Kids roamed between the sandpit, inside where the music was and outside watching Sammy Star.





The speeches were good too - in particular it was really interesting hearing Frank Cox's view of life in the Newlands area. The music rocked, the sausages sizzled and the cake stall was eaten bare. In the end, we raised over $1300!! This money has been banked and will be used to fund community events at the pool or go towards the purchase of something that the pool can use.





A big thank-you goes out to everyone that helped out with the day and made it the enormous success that it was.

More photos here. See you all at the pool!

Pool Together

Friends of Coburg Olympic Pool would like to commend the Moreland council for listening to the people and responding with a budget proposal to fund re-opening of the pool in time for the coming summer season.

We would like to invite the community to Pool Together, our family fun day on Sunday 29th of June at Newlands Community Centre, corner Elizabeth St and Murray Rd, Coburg North. The fun day will run from 2.00pm to 5.00pm.



Come and celebrate with us! There will be local musicians and comedians, halal sausage sizzle, raffles, cakes and badges for sale, a historical display and lots of activities for the kids.

Entry is a gold coin donation and this will start our fundraising in the spirit of the Civic Fund of the early '60's. Children were known to empty their money boxes into the Civic Fund to help get the pool built. We want to show just how many pool users, past and potential are interested in the pool's future and will have an ideas board on the day.

Hope to see lot's of you on the day!

And just a reminder... has everyone signed our online petition yet? It's up to 216, there's space to leave comments and council do read it.

Moreland council allocates money for pool in budget

by Janet Grigg
As you may have read in the local press, Moreland council has allocated $392,000 for capital works on Moreland's aquatic facilities in the 2008/09 draft budget. It appears that $360,00 of this money is earmarked for the repair of the Coburg Olympic Pool. Works to be undertaken include a refit of the reception area, general pool maintenance and the replacement of lane ropes, reels and pool covers. In response to one of our questions at the council meeting, the Director of the Program of Works advised that if this budget item is passed in July, then barring any unforeseen circumstances, the works will be undertaken early enough for the pool to be open on 1st December 2008. So although nothing is guaranteed at this stage, this is good news indeed.



At the meeting we also asked whether it was possible for Friends of Coburg Pool to be actively involved in setting the future direction of the pool, and to be included in any steering groups, committees, focus groups and the like. As we are very keen to work with the council for a positive outcome. The short answer from the council was yes, that was well understood.  So at this point we need to keep the pressure on and maybe, just maybe start thinking about that beautiful day when the pool will re-open!

You can find a copy of the proposed 2008/09 Moreland budget here and more information about the budget process in general here.

residents campaign to save crumbling infrastructure

There was a fantastic turnout to last night's meeting. Colourful and cheerfully chaotic, with cake and lots of toys, the point was made that local residents are passionate about the Coburg Olympic Pool. That re-opening our pool by the Merri Creek is an issue that will not go away.





About halfway through question time, Monique interupted me scribbling in my yellow book, "if you were a journalist, what do you think the main story would be tonight?" I looked at my list: the Fawkner Blues soccer club who are angry at the state of their grounds disprepair, the man that campaigns unendingly about the state of the public toilets in the area, another question about the closure of the Newlands Senior Citizen's centre, a shocking question about the state of the Pascoe Vale Pool last summer and of course, the fact that Coburg Olympic Pool has been closed for two summers in a row because it has not been properly maintained.

"Infrastructure," I said. Monique nodded. "Anything that needs to be maintained." Yep. It's infrastructure alright. Public facilites that have been allowed to lapse into dangerous disrepair. It's like not maintaining a house properly and then having to spend huge amounts to repair damage caused by a a series of small problems like a small roof leak or slightly rusty guttering that's allowed to fester until it becomes a serious issue. Only on a much larger scale.  With much bigger bucks needed to find solutions. At one point councillor Mark O'Brien stated that he supports council borrowing to fund the repair of crumbling infrastructure.

More photos of the night here.

At this stage, we still don't know whether there will be a funding allocation to fix our pool in this year's  budget. The council is not giving any definite answers yet, it all depends on the budget, they say.

Vote 1- Coburg OLympic Pool

The Moreland Council meeting where preliminary discussions regarding the budget for the coming financial year is being held this Wednesday night. This is when decisions about the future of our pool will be made. We can make a difference by attending.

Date: Wednesday 14 May
Time: 7.00pm
Venue: Coburg Council Chambers, Moreland Civic Centre, 90 Bell St Coburg.

The plan is to get to the Council chambers at about 6.30pm and to congregate in the front of the council offices and in the foyer. Bring as many people as you can; including children (if that works for you) props like goggles, towels, bathers (if you can brave the cold), floaties, banners.

Vote 1 Pool

by Melissa Alexander
Our campaign to re-open Coburg Outdoor Pool is about to change direction.  After the council drafts the next budget we will know whether we have to continue lobbying council to feasibly allocate funds or if we will need to help them have it open in time for next summer. We are looking for a big turn out at the next council meeting, it’s being held in Coburg and we want the councilors to see how important it is to our community to have somewhere close to swim next summer.



It is an election year and we wish to use the election to push the councillors to think about whether they are doing their job and listening to the people that elected them or whether they are pursuing their own agenda. We are asking pool enthusiasts to come in their togs to the next meeting, with their kids and pool toys to share a meal. We will take a few snaps and dominate question time with the hope of showing the councillors that we will only reconsider voting in those that are listening to our needs and vote to keep the pool a quality community asset.

“How to vote” cards will be distributed amongst the crowd and will hopefully make their way into the hot little hands of the councillors. We will all have joyous time and reminisce about past days of swimming and lament on the loss of our pool. Now is the time to participate in the campaign if you have been wanting to show your support. If the council do not decide to put the money up there won’t be enough time to after the budget has been finalized to get the money, subsequent repairs and water saving initiatives up before December one. The longer our pool is closed the more unlikely it is to be opened.

Next council meeting is on Wenesday 14th May 2008.

We are meeting at 630 in the council chambers on Bell street.

Don't forget togs, toys and kids.

A call to action!

by Janet Grigg
The next Moreland Council meeting is on:

Wednesday 9 April at 7 pm
Council Chamber, Brunswick Town Hall
Corner Sydney Road and Dawson Street, Brunswick

We'd like lots of people to come along with banners and props such as goggles, beach towells, sun hats, inflatables etc. Bring your children, let your friends and neighbours know the date. Let's show how important the Coburg Olympic Pool is to this community!



This picture is of my daughter pressing up against the pool on a warm day in late January, asking me mournfully why we can't go for swim in this pool.

January 1st 2008 to February 8th 2008

January 7th 2008: Acting CEO, Jenny Merkus, writes to Moreland Leader newspaper maintaining Council’s wrongful understanding of stage 3A water restrictions and their water Conservation plan requiring Coburg Olympic Pool to be closed to offset water use at other pools.

January 10th 2008: FOCOP meet with Moreland City Council Acting CEO, Jenny Merkus to present a petition with 750 names on it. Council denies they misunderstood stage 3A guidelines and make an undertaking to seek clarification from water authority. A report will also be prepared to identify what is needed to reopen the Coburg Olympic Pool for the remainder of the 2008 summer season. Report to presented to Jan or Feb council meeting. FOCOP to be provided a copy of report before tabling at council meeting.

January 14th 2008: Leader Newspaper leaks internal council memo where council acknowledge they mis-interpreted Yarra Valley Water stage 3A guidelines, resulting in the unnecessary closure of the Coburg Olympic Pool. Memo also states ‘council will write to the Yarra Valley Water to request their agreement to fill the pool’

January 17th 2008: John Fain on ABC radio interviews Moreland Mayor, Joe Caputo.  Cr Caputo admits Council got it wrong resulting in the unnecessary closure of the Coburg Olympic Pool but will not commit to its reopening, claiming Council has not the funds.  Cr Caputo says a report is being prepared to identify what is needed to get the pool open. This report will be used to make a decision on the immediate future of the pool at the next council meeting on January 30th 2008. Cr Caputo offers a shuttle bus service as an interim solution.

January 30th 2008: FOCOP prepare for Council meeting without a copy of the Council report on the pool. A morning meeting with North East ward Councilors Andrea Sharam and Mark O’Brien allows us to hear some of the report findings and gauge Councilors position on the re-opening of the Pool. Both councilors state they would not support the pool re-opening for the 2008 summer or beyond. Both councilors claimed the pool is past it’s used by date, requiring too much money to fix.  Councilors talked about the Moreland Aquatic strategy and the Coburg 2020 plan as a solution to the closure of the pool.

January 30th 2008: Moreland Council Meeting, Bell St Coburg. Approximately 30 FOCOP supporters attend meeting. Councilors extend question time to hear many questions from the public gallery.  Councilors dispute claims from the public gallery that the pool has been closed intentionally and claim the closure is temporary. Councilors vote to keep the pool closed for the remainder of the 2008 summer season and have it considered in the next capital works budget in June/July 2008

February 8th 2008: WILLS federal MP Kelvin Thompson writes Climate change and water minister Penny Wong, to help save Coburg Olympic Pool. The letter requested funding assistance and included copies of local paper articles. Local Leader Newspaper features an article on this topic on February 11th

to be continued...

December 1st, 2006 to December 31st 2007

December 1st 2006: Coburg Olympic Pool fails to open for the summer season as scheduled. Being a hot day, many people turned up to the pool for “the first day of the season swim” to find the pool closed. With Moreland Council failing to erect signage explaining the closure, or provide information on Council website and pool answering machine, many local residents are left guessing.

December 12th 2006: Moreland Council announces the pool is closed due to maintenance issues until further notice. Council website and pool answering machine are not updated with new information. This is a verbal response provided to residents upon telephone enquires. Information on the exact nature of maintenance issues is not disclosed.

December 28th 2006: Moreland Council media release states the pool will remain closed for the remainder of the summer 06/07. "Council regrets that the Coburg Olympic Pool in Murray Road will not re-open this summer so that Council can meet its water conservation obligations under the Stage 3 Water Restrictions. 
Whilst the recent Coburg Olympic Pool plant room repairs are complete, final testing and calibration cannot be finished until the pool is filled. This is not possible because we are unable to meet Yarra Valley Water saving targets across the municipality. It is a tough choice but not filling this pool means the others can stay open." Council still fail to erect signage explaining the pool closure, or update Council website and pool answering machine. Local residents are still guessing! Curiously, local residents look thru the fence to the murky waters a very full Coburg Olympic pool.

January 3rd 2007: Media statement from Moreland Mayor, Councilor Mark O’Brien confirms the following "Moreland has reached the crossroads with our swimming pools. Whilst the drought and Level 3 water restrictions have caused us to close the Coburg Olympic pool, we cannot hide from the fact that the use by dates for most of our pools is fast approaching. Some of them leak a great deal of water, some have terminal rust and others are simply not adequate for their purpose."


January 9th 2007: Moreland Council offer the following information in an article published by The Age newspaper “Water authorities told the council that opening the pool would breach its water conservation obligations under stage 3 water restrictions and that other pools in the area would have to close if it decided to keep the Coburg outdoor pool open”. Mayor, Cr Mark O’Brien is pictured standing at the end of the pool looking concerned – ironically; the pool is shown to be full of water, albeit murky and uninviting!

August 2007: Friends of Coburg Olympic Pool (FOCOP) write to Moreland Council officers and the 4 North East ward Councilors requesting the pool open for the summer season of 2007/08

September 20th 2007:Jenny Merkus, Director of Social Development at Moreland Council, responds to the FOCOP request with the following written statement  "Council wish to confirm that as a result of the ongoing water restrictions, Council’s commitment to its water conservation plan and the subsequent water saving initiatives, it is not feasible to open the Coburg Outdoor pool for the 2007/2008 season unless current water restrictions are eased or alternative water savings initiatives of comparable volumes can be identified at other aquatic venues."


September 9th 2007: Moreland Mayor and North East Ward Councilor, Mark O’Brien, offers the following written response to the FOCOP request, "the council spent $80,000 on the pump repairs last year in time for the season. The only reason it stayed closed was the refusal of Yarra Valley Water to allow us to re-fill the pool due to the water Restrictions."


September 10th 2007: North East Ward Councilor, Andrea Sharam offers the following written response "Last year the pool had a major plant problem and then the state govt imposed harsher water restrictions which meant that the pool could not be re-filled once the works were completed. It is also true that it is unlikely to re-open this summer because of the water restrictions"


December 22nd 2007: FOCOP confirm with local water authority, Yarra Valley Water, that Coburg Olympic Pool is allowed to open under current stage 3A water restrictions.

December 31st 2007: Moreland Leader Newspaper breaks story of the Pool’s unnecessary closure by Moreland Council.  Yarra Valley Water spokesperson, Emma Hiller, confirmed that public pools were not included in the water conservations plans required of councils, and it was a council decision to close the Coburg Olympic Pool.

question time

by Janet Grigg
On January 30th 2008, more than 30 Friends of Coburg Olympic Pool (FOCOP) attended the Moreland council meeting at Bell St, Coburg. Question time was extended to hear many questions from the public gallery. Councillors disputed claims that the Coburg Olympic Pool has been closed intentionally, claiming the closure is temporary.

Earlier that morning, FOCOP prepared for the Council meeting without a copy of the Council report on the pool. A morning meeting with North East ward Councillors, Andrea Sharam and Mark O’Brien, allowed us to hear some of the report findings and gauge Councillors position on the re-opening of the Pool. Both councillors stated they would not support the pool re-opening for the 2008 summer or beyond. Both councillors claimed the pool is past its use by date, and that the majority of councillors would not support spending 350K required to re-open the pool. Councillors talked about the Moreland Aquatic Strategy and the Coburg 2020 plan as a solution to the closure of the pool.

However, later that night, at the council meeting, Moreland council agreed to consider the funding of the works required to re-open the Coburg Olympic Pool as part of the 2008/2009 capital works budget. This would take place in June/July and would require councillors to vote either way. All the councillors at the meeting gave the impression they have no intention of closing the pool - which begs the question why then the pool is still closed? And why has the Moreland Council not committed to opening it next summer?

Council meeting

by Janet Grigg

Wednesday 30 January 7pm
Council Chamber, Moreland Civic Centre
90 Bell Street, Coburg

On the agenda at number 12. LATE REPORTS
DCI07 COBURG OLYMPIC POOL (C07/1514)
This is what's up for discussion....



I can't express how inviting this pool looked from outside the fence at about five on a balmy summer evening. Imagine how pleasant it would be to picnic beneath the trees, go for a swim, relax with your family or friends, hang out on the lawn with a book. Imagine what a valuable community asset this pool in the park would be if it was well maintained, adequately staffed, with good programmes. Filled with sparkling clean water. Promoted as a venue for relaxation and excercise. Open for business.

It has been closed since 1st of December 2006. Be there if you can.