This was a hotly debated question at Greater Shepparton City Council’s August meeting.
The topic was brought up following a notice of motion put forward by Cr Fern Summer in February.
Even though the council wasn’t sitting to make decisions regarding the free-to-access pools, the report prompted intense conversation around the table.
Cr Summer said the report deviated from her original intention, as she wanted to see if the free splash park would drive more money into the paid areas.
“Rather than seeing this as an opportunity to make more money, this report kind of deviates into investigating new splash parks,” she said.
“The new splash parks were costed at a minimum of $1.5 million, and that’s a very basic model.
“I don’t think there is any need to spend any money on a new park because we already have one.”
Cr Ben Ladson, who seconded the motion, congratulated Cr Summer for bringing the motion forward.
“I just want to commend Cr Summer for her ideas to make a splash test the waters, one would say,” he said.
Cr Anthony Brophy acknowledged the work of the council staff who put the report together for council.
“They put a lot of work into this,” he said.
“I actually see a future for the positives in this, and I believe that it is not dead in the water ... but the opening of perhaps future conversations.”
Deputy Mayor Sam Spinks said the report confirmed her original hesitations, rather than calmed them.
“I originally did not support exploring the idea to make the Aquamoves splash park free and unfortunately the review as it is has come back confirming all the concerns I had,” she said.
“But more largely than any one of the reasons in the report, I just feel that it just isn’t designed to retrofit in this way.”
Cr Seema Abdullah seconded Cr Spinks’ comments but said that the idea itself was not the problem.
“I’ll be very keen for this council to explore that opportunity,” she said.
Mayor Shane Sali said that continuing to improve Aquamoves’ facilities was a priority for council; however, there were more pressing issues than free access.
“It's an important community facility, and we need to keep investing into it and I think there’s a greater long-term vision of what that splash park looks there,” he said.
“There are priorities at Aquamoves to upgrade the hydro pool, there are priorities to upgrade the swimming lesson area.
“The young children’s swimming lesson area that, we feel, would be more of a priority than opening up a splash park to be free to use.”
As part of the report, alternative locations were proposed, including Shepparton All Abilities Playground, near SAM and the Victoria Lake Holiday Park, KidsTown, or adjacent to Tatura or Mooroopna seasonal pools.
There were also five main concerns and risks brought up in the report.
- Financial implications: Potential impacts on the Aquamoves operations budget and future implications on the council capital budget if new splash park builds were undertaken.
- Impact on paying customers: Possible devaluation of services at Aquamoves and its impact on paying customers.
- Facility supervision and asset management: Challenges related to supervision, asset management and potential issues with anti-social behaviour.
- Crowd control: Challenges in managing increased attendance leading to potential future lockouts.
- Reputation damage: Possible reputation damage if aquatic service options decrease for different user groups.
The report concluded that while offering free access to the Aquamoves splash park might initially appear beneficial for community engagement, the long-term consequences were likely to outweigh the perceived benefits.
The report recommended that council not proceed with adding any new splash park facilities until the financial position improved, as introducing new facilities would incur additional capital and operational expenses, which would not be feasible under current budgetary limitations.
The report was accepted and noted unopposed.
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