THE Northern Beaches Residents’ Association (NBRA) is asking the Coffs Harbour City Council to present a new Plan of Management (POM) for the redevelopment of the Woolgoolga Pool Block.

Ray Willing, spokesperson for the NBRA, said, “Council has not kept its promise made in the Woolgoolga Town Centre Masterplan to undertake public consultation on the future of the Pool Block.

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“This promise has been repeated many times since in various Council reports.”

Mr Willing said the proposed new design is not the issue but a perceived lack of community consultation about relocating the pool to a new part of the block at the north west corner has not been put to the community.

There has been significant correspondence about the issue.

The Mayor of Coffs Harbour, Paul Amos, wrote to the NBRA and said that he noted their concerns but that the views of the broader community needed to be considered.

He pointed out several areas of difference and accepted that the NBRA had some valid points, but hoped that the group would support the Council’s proposal.

Cr Amos said $400,000 had been spent on the design and delays might put funding in jeopardy.

In response, the NRBA indicated it was happy to participate in a process that can bring all necessary factors into play and finalised quickly while meeting what the NBRA sees as community standards.

The most recent response from Council is that, in 2018, community members were asked for their ideas via a survey on the facilities/features they wanted to see at redeveloped pools in Woolgoolga and Sawtell.

The Final Report was placed on public exhibition from 28 May 2019 to 25 June 2019.

Based on this, detailed designs were developed in 2020 so that funding could be sought and they were placed on Council’s ‘Have Your Say’ website.

Mr Willing said that residents could not comment on the public exhibition.

He said, “We do not want the Pool Block layout potentially compromised without the promised and, in our view, necessary, public consultation on the use of the overall block.”

By Andrew VIVIAN