1. Community Profile

• Brimbank City has a population of 170,000 people and is steadily growing.  It "has the largest population of all municipalities in the Western Region" (Tregear 1998)
• Brimbank City is estimated to have a population exceeding 200,000 people during this decade
• Aquatic services catering for at least 1,000,000 visitations per annum need to be established for Brimbank residents given the size of the population
• "there have been significant increases of up to 66% in the older age groups. The youth population..... is higher than the Melbourne average" (Best Value Review Leisure Centres - Progress Report, Oct. 2002)
• "Brimbank community is recognised as being significantly disadvantaged and having the most vulnerable communities in Australia. (Best Value Review....2002)
• The average unemployment rate in Brimbank is significantly higher than the Victorian State average" (Best Value Review.....2002)
• "Brimbank is also significantly disadvantaged in relation to health status" (Best Value Review.. 2002)
• Males in Brimbank have a significantly below average life expectancy" (Best Value Review....2002)
• Brimbank community demand for aquatic services has continued to grow over the past decade as Brimbank’s population has grown but aquatic facilities have been closed rather than expanded over that period
• Currently available plans for Brimbank aquatic service development show that there is unlikely to be any significant improvement in community access during the next decade at least.

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2. Brimbank Aquatic Leisure Facilities – Past and Present

• Only 2 municipal aquatic leisure facilities service the City of Brimbank

1) Sunshine Swim and Leisure Centre - with one 25m X 6 lane indoor pool

2) St Albans Leisure Centre - with one 25m X 6 lane indoor pool and 4 various sized outdoor pools (opened seasonally)

• Sunshine's 3 outdoor pools were closed progressively from 1994 with no community consultation and no formal announcement, apparently as the result of council's failure to properly maintain and repair them
• Members of the Sunshine Community protested the closure (The Times,  7.12.94)
• The Deer Park Pool was also bulldozed by Council without community consultation
• Brimbank has one of the lowest per capita levels of access to aquatic facilities in Melbourne
• Brimbank has the worst access to aquatic facilities / water space in the Western Region (SRV Western Metro Region Aquatic Leisure Centre Study - Jan 2000)
• Brimbank has the worst access to aquatic facilities / water space of any major city in Victoria.

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3. Maribyrnong Highpoint Pool

• The Maribyrnong Council’s report “Future Aquatic Services in Maribyrnong” (note Maribyrnong not Western Region) approved by Council on 15 October 2001 shows a visitation estimate of 500,000 in 2006 for a new Highpoint Pool. 
• Using the industry standard benchmark of 5-7 visits per person the new Pool will cater for a community of around 80,000 – slightly above the Maribyrnong city’s projected population making the Pool a local facility not a regional one.
• The Sunshine Community Pool Action Group has been unable to access any clear information identifying which regional and local aquatic services will be offered at the new Highpoint Pool despite numerous newspaper announcements that regional services will be provided to the Western Region community.
• There has been no consultation at all about a regional aquatic facility for the Western Region.  To the contrary both Maribyrnong and Brimbank Councils made public announcements about the decision not to pursue a joint regional facility and emphasized they would be developing local community facilities.
• The new Highpoint Pool will service demand primarily from the N and E of Highpoint where the majority of shoppers come from not Sunshine. 
• The Sunshine community of 70,000 people could therefore not possibly be serviced by the Maribyrnong Pool

The Sunshine Community Pool Action Group believes Brimbank Council’s “Option A” decision not to expand and redevelop aquatic services at the Sunshine Swim & Leisure Centre (SSLC) does not meet with:

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a)       Community needs and views which can be summarised as

• A major aquatic centre needs to be retained in Sunshine to cater for 500,000 visitations and a strategic master plan for a staged redevelopment be approved on that basis
• Brimbank needs at least two major aquatic centres, with a range of formal and informal aquatic spaces at Sunshine and St Albans to meet current demand in the City
• The redevelopment of Sunshine Pool fits with Melbourne 2030 policy and planning objectives given Sunshine’s status as a Primary Activity Centre
• The Sunshine Swimming Centre must offer more pool space than the current 6 lane x 25m pool in order to cater for the local populations demand for aquatic services
• Many residents want outdoor pool facilities restored or replaced
• As a secondary concern some gym users at the centre wish to see cramped conditions in the “dry area” of the centre improved
• The community believes council’s proposal to focus the redevelopment of the SSLC on the gym area blatantly disregards the majority community view expressed over the last 3 years that redevelopment of the centre should focus primarily on increasing and improving the aquatic components of the centre

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b)       Recommendations of Feasibility Studies and Reviews 1994 – present

• These reports/studies all consistently report on the inadequacy of the aquatic components of the facility and recommend an increase in the number of pools and the available water space in order to cater for unmet community demand
• Since the reports were written, the local population has increased and all but one 25m pool have closed meaning the “unmet demand” for aquatic facilities has increased
• The reports recommend that the annual operating subsidies to the SSLC could be reduced or made cost neutral by adding to the range and number of pools eg. Adding a “Learn to Swim Pool”
• Savings on annual operating deficits could at least partly contribute to the capital outlay to add extra aquatic components

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