Consulation sends clear message to Council

The community attendance at Thursday night's Consultation meeting with Council officers at Mayfield Pool was so great that we had to move the meeting to Mayfield East Primary School Hall (thanks to Warwick, the school Principal). Even there the Hall was overflowing! Council officers had the difficult task of presenting the recommendations of the "Pool Service Delivery Model" report which had provoked our campaign. Following a presentation, members of the community expressed frustration, disbelief and anger at the proposal to close the pool, and put forward many arguments about why the Pool must be kept open and improved in the long term.

Arguments for keeping and improving Mayfield pool included: its historical and social importance; access by local schools; social and environmental benefits of large numbers walking to their local pool; equity impacts if forced to rely on public transport or cars to travel to Lambton to pay an increased admission cost ($5 a visit the projected fee); the potential to improve attendance with improvements; the value of decentralised community services; and many others. It was noted that the proposed closure of the pool is directly linked to the proposed upgrade and future profitability of the Lambton facility (via Mayfield pool users going to the new centre, and savings helping to pay for the Lambton upgrade), and that this logic was both flawed and unacceptable.

Many alternatives were put forward, rejecting the proposal that the idea that there were only two options: to continue as is or close Mayfield and upgrade Lambton. Common to these was the idea that Mayfield should be retained and improved for the long term, with things like solar heating / solar power generation for the whole Centre, and consideration of facilities like those in the Proposal, but in "addition" to the maintenance and upgrade of the swimming pool. It was made clear that these ideas do not necessarily mean plans for Lambton can not go ahead, and that other things should be investigated like free admission as occurs in some other states.

Council officers and the Lord Mayor recorded our input and suggestions, and encouraged people to submit written submissions (due the end of October). Our presence and voice at last night's meeting ought to count for several hundred submissions with a clear message!

The Lord Mayor expressed his support to keep the Pool, and comitted to setting up a small committee of community representatives to work with Council to achieve that outcome, which was welcome news. No guarantee yet, but an important step in our campaign.

Many thanks and congratulations to all of us who were there last night, and at the earlier meetings, and who have done the background work preparing and printing leaflets, letterboxing, making posters and banners, speaking with media, etc etc. We have a real opportunity here to achieve a really good outcome for Mayfield. Stay posted for more updates soon!

P.S. Please check details (see the panel on the right) on Monday night's Mayfield Community Forum which is the next opportunity to reinforce our message to Council.