Councillor Ross Grove

Our community may be the home to a modern day aquatic and leisure centre under a major review of services provided by Holroyd City Council, Liberal Councillor Ross Grove said today.

Under the plan, council’s existing swimming pools at Merrylands, Wentworthville and Guildford will be closed down to make way for a central facility which could incorporate such features as an indoor Olympic-standard pool, water based entertainment, hydrotherapy, waterslides, spa baths and saunas.

“Our present system of maintaining three unattractive, 1950s-era pools simply isn’t providing value anymore for the ratepayers of Holroyd.” Clr Grove said today.

“We need to better target the resources of Council to make sure that the local community gets more bang for their buck.

“If we focus at providing better services at one central location more people will want to come and everyone will get more for their money.

“Today’s pool-user expects more than just a hole in the ground with a couple of jumping blocks and lane markings from one end to the other. They go to the pools to have fun and in order to do so they’re leaving Holroyd to head down the M4 to the aquatic centre at Homebush.

“In order to stay competitive we need to combine our resources and give the community want today – not what they wanted when the pools were built half a century ago.

“If we don’t take decisive action on this issue we’ll be stuck with three pools with declining patronage figures and an eight million dollar bill to bring these pools up to meet today’s minimum safety standards – that’s money I’d rather put towards a supercentre which can provide more services and cater to today’s community.

“Let’s take the steps to renew our infrastructure today so we don’t have to pay for the consequences of inaction tomorrow.”

The review is subject to a feasibility study and consultation with pool-user groups and the broader Holroyd community.