The Batemans Bay Indoor Aquatic Centre committee has been campaigning for an indoor aquatic centre for over 20years. Council are currently working on plans for a new centre that may be incorporated with an arts/cultural centre on the present pool site. These plans are showing a lap pool, hydrotherapy/program pool, a splash park, leisure pool and waterslides. This will make a wonderful facility suitable for everyone in our community plus be an excellent tourist attraction. However, the lap pool is proposed to be only 25m. Councillors have now been sent letters from members of the Batemans Bay community explaining the importance and advantages of a 50m pool as opposed to a 25m. Batemans Bay Indoor Aquatic Centre Committee is pressing hard for a 50 metre pool in the new centre, rather than the 25 metre one currently proposed by Council. In March the consultant that ESC has employed spoke to us at the Sunset Committee meeting. He explained how they want to combine the aquatic centre and the arts/cultural facilities together on the pool site so as facilities like the reception, staff offices etc are used by both. However in early June it was revealed that Council is now looking at a variation to thecurrent planning to separate the performing arts centre from the “state-of- the-artaquatic centre” and has asked consultants Otium to look at different scenarios which would retain the aquatic centre on its existing site and place the performing arts centre on the northern side. Both would become standalone facilities within the Mackay Park Precinct, along with some public/private partnership development.
Council is also reassessing the plans for the Mackay Park precinct in relation to changing the 500 seat entertainment centre to a 1000 seat. It is now becoming quite apparent that they have a vision for the site and have consultants working on that vision to mold it into something that a Private Partnership might be interested in. The Beagle is interested in watching what Council does and how it informs the community in regards to the Batemans Bay Bowling Club site and the facilities and development it plans. In the precedent, which was the Stocklands project, it was witnessed that Eurobodalla Council made many, and in the end substantial, changes to the design of that town-block which saw the proposed bus terminal that was to be located at the south of the block facing the Tourist Information centre relocated to its current ad-hoc location on Clyde/Orient Street. At the time the bus terminal was to have shared the block 80%/20% with the plaza. It is understood that little of these design changes were communicated to the Councillors of the day nor to the public.
