Ballina’s Council’s last meeting saw a motion from Cr Simon Chate to review swimming pool admission prices, particularly for families, because of the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.
Margaret van Dommele made a deputation in support of the motion, saying that she learned to swim in a public pool as a child, and later became a champion junior diver as a result. She said that the ‘much higher’ price of pool entry today made regular visits impossible for many families, especially those with multiple children.
She noted that cheaper family passes were available at pools beyond Ballina Shire, such as in Goonellabah and Lismore.
Cr Chate described the current pricing regime as ‘a weak spot’ in Ballina’s charging situation. ‘We’ve currently got a family pass available for the annual and three-monthly pass, but our family pass is designed only for two adults and two children, or one adult and three children.
‘But what about our larger families? What about families with one or two adults and five or six children? The cost can be quite prohibitive.’
Cr Chate said he wasn’t asking for reduced general costs, but for Council staff to review entry fees with a view to finding a cheaper alternative for larger families, all on the same Medicare card.
Amendment fails
Cr Therese Crollick supported this motion, but added an amendment to look at adding a monthly pool ticket option, saying that pool managers frequently reported public requests for this option. This amendment didn’t find enough support to proceed.
Cr Eva Ramsey wanted to put on the record that Ballina’s pools were already running at ‘a huge deficit’ and that fees needed to be structured to cover that, as well as maintenance costs. Cr Damian Loone made the same point.
Cr Simon Chate said it was not the responsibility of people with larger families to keep Ballina Council’s deficit down. ‘This is not on them… all of our ratepayers are paying rates.’
After further debate, Cr Chate’s motion succeeded, despite the opposition of Mayor Cadwallader, Cr Simon Kinny and Cr Damian Loone.
Cr Phil Meehan did not attend the meeting.
More stories about Ballina Shire Council:
The agenda for Thursday's meeting includes six notices of motion from four councillors, with issues including missing persons, volunteer recognition, and arts funding. Construction on a $4.35 million flood-resilience upgrade of Ross Lane at Lennox Head is due to begin today, ahead of a nine-week closure of the busy road later this month. With Ballina Shire Council General Manager Paul Hickey deciding to retire after almost twenty years in the role, and even longer as a staff member, the task of finding a replacement has begun. Cr Damien Loone was also returned as Deputy Mayor after Cr Simon Chate withdrew his nomination. September's meeting opened with a minute's silence for much-loved community member and Lennox Head restaurant owner Blake Rogers, who lost his life last week. Fresh from winning pre-selection as the Nationals candidate for the state seat of Ballina, the 'independent' first-term Ballina councillor Michelle Bailey has put forward a notice of motion asking Council to scrap its fixed 2030 net-zero target in favour of what she describes as a 'flexible sustainability strategy'.
Big meeting for Ballina Council this week
Ross Lane flood-resilience works begin ahead of nine-week closure
Ballina Council will be getting a new general manager
Ballina debates dog parks and net zero
Michelle Bailey targets net zero in Ballina
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