Pool Together

Friends of Coburg Olympic Pool would like to commend the Moreland council for listening to the people and responding with a budget proposal to fund re-opening of the pool in time for the coming summer season.

We would like to invite the community to Pool Together, our family fun day on Sunday 29th of June at Newlands Community Centre, corner Elizabeth St and Murray Rd, Coburg North. The fun day will run from 2.00pm to 5.00pm.



Come and celebrate with us! There will be local musicians and comedians, halal sausage sizzle, raffles, cakes and badges for sale, a historical display and lots of activities for the kids.

Entry is a gold coin donation and this will start our fundraising in the spirit of the Civic Fund of the early '60's. Children were known to empty their money boxes into the Civic Fund to help get the pool built. We want to show just how many pool users, past and potential are interested in the pool's future and will have an ideas board on the day.

Hope to see lot's of you on the day!

And just a reminder... has everyone signed our online petition yet? It's up to 216, there's space to leave comments and council do read it.

Moreland council allocates money for pool in budget

by Janet Grigg
As you may have read in the local press, Moreland council has allocated $392,000 for capital works on Moreland's aquatic facilities in the 2008/09 draft budget. It appears that $360,00 of this money is earmarked for the repair of the Coburg Olympic Pool. Works to be undertaken include a refit of the reception area, general pool maintenance and the replacement of lane ropes, reels and pool covers. In response to one of our questions at the council meeting, the Director of the Program of Works advised that if this budget item is passed in July, then barring any unforeseen circumstances, the works will be undertaken early enough for the pool to be open on 1st December 2008. So although nothing is guaranteed at this stage, this is good news indeed.



At the meeting we also asked whether it was possible for Friends of Coburg Pool to be actively involved in setting the future direction of the pool, and to be included in any steering groups, committees, focus groups and the like. As we are very keen to work with the council for a positive outcome. The short answer from the council was yes, that was well understood.  So at this point we need to keep the pressure on and maybe, just maybe start thinking about that beautiful day when the pool will re-open!

You can find a copy of the proposed 2008/09 Moreland budget here and more information about the budget process in general here.

please sign our online petition

by Janet Grigg
There's a new link to the right of the website... the online petition! Please sign and pass on. It's heading towards budget time and this is when Moreland council will decide whether or not the fund the works required to re-open the Coburg Olympic Pool for Summer 2008/09. A paper petition with 700 plus signatures was presented to council earlier this year. Let's see what we can do electronically.
The photos below are from Dr Clare Wright and show the fantastic turnout at the council meeting on 14th of May. It really was packed to the rafters. If you didn't catch the link on the sidebar earlier, Clare wrote a fantastic piece for The Age, "Destroy a pool in haste, repent at leisure centre" .





In other news, the email subscription form has been fixed and subscribers should now receive each new post overnight.