DOUBT OVER FUTURE OF CLARENCE POOLS

It is a disappointment that Clarence Valley Council has accepted a report without amendment recommending decommissioning the Glenreagh Pool. In an area with almost no alternative safe public space for swimming, public transport limited to one day per week during school hours and a low SEFIA rating it is difficult to understand the logic behind Council’s decision. Stating reasons for the recommendation such as a cost cutting measure in no way validates the inequity apparent in the removal of the only Council supported leisure facility for 30 – 40 km. Furthermore the suggestion that resident instead travel to Nana Glen ( a different Council area) to pay higher addmission fees for the privelage of swimming and teaching our children water safety. This suggestion has no forethough ignoring the fact the local school may be forced to cancel swimming programs, due to transport, timetabling and funding issues, nor has consideration been given to the many young paople who walk and ride bicycles to the pool. Who will shoulder the grieving parents of a young person hit by a car and killed riding along the Orara Way to go for a swim? Who will tell the school children that they dont matter enough to have access to somewhere safe to swim? Who will happily sink extra funds into improving aquatic centres within larger centres like Grafton and Yamba but not continue to provide a relatively disadvantaged community access to it smaller and extremely essential program pool? Who in their right mind would want to close a facility used primarily for teaching a life skill that saves lives? Clarence Valley Council – make your decision carefully, how much is life worth? Much more than any saving you will ever make on pool expenses of that I am certain.