Page 956 - Week 03 - Thursday, 19 March 2015
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closure of the facility, including the gymnasium, over the July and August months. The government will of course work with contractors to expedite these works to reduce impacts on users.
These necessary works have been programmed to avoid the busy summer period and to coincide with the end of the current management contract and will result in greatly improved amenity for all pool and gym users. This information will be contained in the relevant tendered documents. As you will appreciate, necessary maintenance of our aquatic facilities must occur from time to time and works are programmed to take place during the low season of aquatic facility use.
Sport and Recreation Services have given preliminary advice of the closure to key user groups at Lakeside Leisure Centre who will be affected by the closure. This work responds to community concerns that have been raised about upgrades required. There will of course be further communication with affected stakeholders and residents of Tuggeranong regarding the scheduled maintenance in the coming weeks and months.
Back to the issue of procurement for Civic, the government believes that, given the uncertainty around the future of the outdoor pools, specifically whether they will reopen at some time in the future, respondents to the pools RFP will be asked to consider two management scenarios in their proposal. The first will include the indoor pool, health club and ancillary facilities, and the second will include the two outdoor pools in addition to these services. I would like to reiterate that, should an acceptable and cost-effective remedy be identified as a result of the final leak investigation, there may be an opportunity to reopen the outdoor pools.
The ACT government remains committed to ensuring that the Canberra Olympic pool can continue to operate for as long as it remains viable and that the maximum level of services it can offer remains available to meet the ongoing needs of the community into the future, until an ultimate decision is made about the long-term future of the facility. The long-term viability of the pool is currently being assessed in the context of broader considerations for the development of future aquatic facilities in the ACT and also in the context of a range of proposals that are currently being investigated.
Preliminary planning activities are underway to progress the ACT government’s commitment to providing a new aquatic facility at Molonglo and also at West Basin with the city to the lake project.
I look forward to providing further updates to the Assembly about the future of the Canberra Olympic pool, including the results of our leak investigations work and whether it will be possible to reopen the outdoor pools.
MR DOSZPOT (Molonglo) (3:46): The announcement today about the dubious future of the Canberra Olympic pool comes as no surprise. As I mentioned earlier today when speaking on the Public Pools Bill, we have known for some time about the infrastructure vulnerabilities of this pool. We alluded to the fact that there are others equally as old and probably just as vulnerable.
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