SWIMMERS are now being charged to use the Ulladulla Sea Pool.
For the first time ever, fees will be charged to swim at the popular sea pool which is being supervised daily by a lifeguard.
The pool opened for the summer on Sunday November 1, with adults charged $3 to enter and children/concession $2.50.
Regular users of the pool and members of the Ulladulla Sea Pool Committee are outraged at Shoalhaven City Council’s decision to implement the fees.
They believe there has been insufficient community consultation and committee members claim they were not informed about the proposal.
Committee chairperson Roseanna Guy said she received a letter on October 28 announcing council’s plans to charge sea pool users from November 1.
She said four days’ notice was “ridiculous” and the decision “came out of the blue”.
“I’m absolutely gutted.
“There has been no community discussion about the plan to introduce fees.
She described the move as "unprecedented" and "unbelievable".
“I’m really, really angered by council’s decision to do it,” Ms Guy said.
She said the high number of unemployed and older residents in the Ulladulla district would be hit hard by the decision.
Wheelchair bound, Roseanna said she aims to use the pool once or twice a week for therapy.
She, along with users like Margy Sheedy and Mark Burcher, have been fighting to keep the pool open, maintained and free for more than a decade.
Mr Burcher said he would have liked to have had some discussion about the fees before they were introduced.
Although he doesn’t mind paying to use the facility, he said many pool users would be financially disadvantaged.
He has spoken to council staff and expressed the committee’s concern about the fees.
“It's the way it’s come about that’s the issue,” he told the Times.
“There hasn’t been enough consultation with the users,” he said.
Ms Guy said young families and school children regularly swam at the pool instead of the beach because it was safer.
“They might not be able to afford to use it now and that would be very disappointing,” she added.
Council’s city services and commercial operation manager Bill Paterson told the Times the fees would be in place until the end of January while a life guard is present at the pool.
From February the pool will be unsupervised and free for a trial period until April.
“We’ll see what the community response is before making a decision about lifeguards and fees for next year.
“People might prefer that the pool remains supervised to reduce the possibility of anti-social behaviour.”
Mr Paterson said council voted to introduce the fees to sea pools in February this year, bringing them into line will all of the city’s village pools – such as Milton – where lifeguards are also on duty daily over summer.
He said the lifeguards would collect the fees.
During the next three months additional security and signage measures will be put in place in the lead up to the unsupervised period.
Mr Paterson said there are a lot of liability and insurance issues to be finalised before the lifeguard service is removed.
Cr Robert Miller said the fee structure caught him by surprise as well, as it had not been discussed recently.
“We’ve been dealing with the lifeguard issue for eight months and there has been no mention of fees from the staff.
“I only found out in the last two or three days,” he said.
He has suggested the pool committee write to council with their concerns about the fees and also maintenance at the facility.
The pool opened on Sunday, with about 30 swimmers taking to the water.
Email a friend
Favourites
Del.icio.us
Facebook
Digg
StumbleUpon
MySpace
Reddit
Newsvine
LinkedIn
Kwoff
Twitter