Open Day demonstrates support for Mayfield Pool

Hundreds of people enjoyed the free enty Open Day at Mayfield Pool yesterday. At one point the organised soccer on the grassed area drew a response of around 30 a side; the circus workshops were very popular; and the pools were full of adults and kids enjoying the water.

The huge success of the day clearly demonstrates the popularity, the current value of the Pool to the community, and its potential as outlined in our submission to Council. It also adds weight to calls from some in the SMSP campaign to review entry fees / trial reduced or free entry, and assess the impact on attendance.

It would be useful if councillors, particularly those in this Ward, called in to witness the impact themselves, and if Council had asked the pool operators to record attendance on the Open Day. The increased numbers was striking to regular pool users.

Once the decision to keep the pool open is formalised on Tuesday (see post below), we can begin to negotiate with Council for them to consider and systematically include and promote more of these sorts of activities for our Pool.

Council Recommends Keeping Mayfield Pool

Following the clear, consistent and strong response of the Mayfield and surrounding communities - via petitions, input at public meetings, written submissions, etc - Council officers are now recommending that Mayfield Pool remain open.

It seems that Mayfield pool won’t be removed (at least in the next 5 years), and might even be improved! See today's story in the Newcastle Herald attached.

Council have called for ongoing community input over the next five years to improve the Mayfield facility in line with local needs.

Come to Council on Tuesday at 7pm (with your swimming gear, snorkels, flippers, signs etc) to witness and celebrate this important vote by Councillors, and to ensure that the vote aligns with the recommendation, in line with community sentiment.

SMSP Floods Council with Submissions

A 10 page submission was lodged with Council today, in the name of the SMSP campaign, detailing the flaws in the proposal to close Mayfield Pool, and the health, community and social justice argument for keeping and improving the pool. This submission was accompanied with:

• a copy of Gionni Di Gravio's presentation of the history of Mayfield Swimming Pool;
• 91 pages of petitions with approximately 2150 signatures;
• 30 Council feedback forms;
• 25 individual, hand-written submissions; and
  
• 21 kids poster-submissions.

All of this is in addition to the large number of individual submissions that have been emailed / posted / dropped in to Council to date. Stay tuned for Council's response.

Successful Submission meeting at the Pool

An enjoyable afternoon at the Pool on Sunday once again reinforced the level of community support for Mayfield Pool. Pool users completed Council Feedback Forms, wrote hand-written submissions, signed petitions, and coloured in "poster-submission" for delivery to Council on the 31st. NBN News and the Newcastle Herald were there, with stories in the paper on on Sunday night's news. Thanks to all who participated to make the day a success.

Action meeting Sunday 28th at 3pm

The next public meeting has been called for 3pm on Sunday 28th October (not the 21st as announced earlier) at Mayfield Pool. As the end of the official consultation period comes closer, we need to send many submissions to Council about why Mayfield Pool must remain open, must remain public, and must be improved. Two documents here provide some ideas that we can include in submissions to win the argument. Please bring along any signed petitions for collection, as well as ideas on creative submissions to Council.

Newcastle swimming club at mayfield pool

The Newcastle Swimming Club is for swimmers of all ages, novices to veterans. They meet on Friday nights at Mayfield Swimming Pool. Free stroke correction and training is provided for club members on weekday afternoons. See the flyer here for details.

The Pool is Open

Mayfield Swimming Pool opened for the season on Saturday. Kate has reported that there was quite a crowd there for a swim in the 20 degree water. See you in the pool!

History of Mayfield Swimming Pool

Gionni di Gravio has put together a slide show about the history of Mayfield Swimming pool, and its connection to Shelly Beach in Mayfield which was given to BHP. If you have not yet seen the slideshow it is well worth it. You can do so here. Thanks Gionni!

Sunday's Sun Herald article

The following story by Michael Blaxland was published in Sunday's Sun Herald, identifying 7 (of 13) councillors who have now publicly committed to maintaining Mayfield Swimming Pool. It is important that we all keep up the pressure on these 7 and the other 6 councillors, by phoning / emailing / writing letters to them individually (see the post below on lobbying Council which has full contact details of all councillors).

Wave of support saves pool

By MICHAEL BLAXLAND
Sun Herald September 23, 2007

NEWCASTLE Council’s plans for a multi-million dollar revamp of swimming facilities have been scuttled following a huge community outburst.

Conversion of Lambton Pool into an aquatic and leisure centre is likely to go back to the drawing board because a majority of councillors won’t support a major plank of the proposal – the removal of Mayfield swimming pool. More than 200 people attended an, at times, heated public meeting on Thursday night which had to be moved from the pool to Mayfield East public school hall because council officers hadn’t expected such a huge turn-out.

A poll of councillors last week by the Sun Herald has found the majority supports retention of the swimming pool, contrary to the council’s draft pool services delivery plan. The plan, which was revealed exclusively in Hunter Extra on July 22, was devised by consultants after private meetings involving only a handful of community members. The proposed public exhibition of the plan was deferred at a subsequent council meeting, pending a series of public consultations which began last week. The four other pools, at Lambton, Wallsend, Stockton and Beresfield would be retained.

Support for the multi-million dollar proposal has dwindled to such an extent that seven of the 13 councillors contacted last week, said they now supported retention of the Mayfield pool. They are Lord Mayor John Tate and Councillors Ian McKenzie, Michael Osborne, Keith Parson, Aaron Buman, Paul Scobie and Sonia Hornery. Councillors Gwen Jackson and Cassandra Arnold said they were not in favour of retaining the pool and Marilyn Eade and Barry Scully said they were undecided. Councillor Helene O’Neill, who had previously been vocal in her opposition to the retention, was unavailable for comment and Barbara Gaudry had been on an extended holiday overseas until late last week.

The retention of the pool should be seen as a chance to re-invigorate the Mayfield area, according to Councillor Tate.
“We need to upgrade our pools and there’s no question that what the Mayfield community wants is an improved pool and one that can stay open.
“For instance we could see a 25-metre heated indoor pool at Lambton and a heated pool at Mayfield as well.”

Mayfield community forum co-chair Bill Robinson said a plan which had been forced on the community had now become an opportunity to improve the area with community support.
“The public was unaware of the proposal until it was revealed in the Sun Herald, which caused a major outcry, but forced community consultation,” he said.
“We now have hundreds of families who are prepared to work with the council to build a fantastic swimming centre, which will benefit everyone and ensure its financial viability.
“Mayfield’s pool was funded by BHP in compensation for the reclamation of Shelley Beach near the Tourle Street bridge.
“The proposal would have taken away our community waterhole.”

4 Point Position for Mayfield Pool

Last Sunday's public meeting endorsed four key points as part of the community position on the Pool and its future. This position was expressed as the basis for our lobbying, and any negotiating, on the future of Mayfield Swimming Pool:

1. Mayfield Swimming Pool must remain in public ownership.
2. Council make a long term commitment to the Pool, at least until 2030.
3. Council commit to improving the Pool in this period.
4. Council support the establishment of an ongoing Pool management committee with community representation.

There is a logical order to these points, based on first ensuring that the proposal to close the pool is rejected by Council. Documents for lobbying councillors, including contact details for all councillors, are in another post below. Please make use of them and pass them around.

Proposal for Heritage Listing

The letter here was written by Colin Whelan and has been forwarded by Colin to the following people: Ms Janet Dore (General Manager of Newcastle City Council); Ms Sarah Cameron (Heritage Officer); and John Tate (Lord Mayor). Please download and read the letter, and if you would like to support this initiative get in touch with Colin.

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.

Lobbying Council to Save Our Pool

Thanks Sharon who has forwarded the two documents here to assist with lobying Council (and State and Federal Government) to maintain and improve our pool. The first (far left) has some ideas on what to do, the other has full contact details of councillors and State and Federal members of parliament.

Leaflets for Thursday's consultation

The leaflet here has been prepared for distribution to promote attendance at the Public Consultation meeting this Thursday (Sept 20) at 5:15pm at Mayfield Pool. Thanks Kate! Free to print, copy and distribute in your local school, workplace, shops, meeting, to friends etc before Thursday, and whatever you do COME TO THE POOL ON THURSDAY TO PUT FORWARD OUR VIEWS TO COUNCIL!

Posters for street facing windows

Posters have been prepared for people to print and put in your street-facing window. One is ready to go, the other ready for kids to colour in. Just right-click on the image, download it to your computer and print.