Early morning swimming cut short at Wee Waa

Early morning swimmers are “disappointed” that the Wee Waa Memorial Pool has closed between 6-8am and said previously the pool would be open in the morning until around Easter time, similar to Narrabri.

However, Narrabri Shire Council said the operating hours were adopted by councillors unanimously, at a meeting in September.

“I am disappointed,” said swimmer Noel Holland.

“The morning is a great time to go swimming, it wakes you up and gets you going for the day.”

Mr Holland said it’s a good time to go because it’s not too hot, the school kids aren’t generally there and also people have the option to swim before work.

“I think there are about eight or 10 of us who go early in the morning,” he said. “I’ve been a swimmer most of my life and I think it’s important for all ages because swimming is such a low-impact exercise.

“If it’s staffing, it’s a shame we can’t get anyone for a couple of hours in the morning.

“I find it a bit silly, last year they put the solar panels on the roof to warm it up, and there’s the mats to put on top at night and we’re not utilising those things and getting full use of them.”

In a statement, Narrabri Shire Council said the Aquatic Facilities Management plan, was adopted by councillors unanimously at the September 2020 meeting and these hours included 6am to 8am between November and February.

“Council arranged a series of consultation sessions with the Wee Waa community about the pool hours of operation prior to the 2020/2021 swimming season to balance community expectations with reasonable hours of operation,” read the NSC statement.

“A review of the Aquatic Facility Management Plan was undertaken after the 2019/2020 season with all communities across the Narrabri Shire, providing key stakeholders an opportunity to have input into the draft document.

“In June 2020, council resolved to place the draft Aquatic Facilities Management Plan that contained the proposed hours of operation for all Narrabri Shire aquatic facilities, on public exhibition.

“The plan was placed on public exhibition where all members of the community were invited to put forward their submissions of which three were received.

“The Aquatic Facilities Management plan, was adopted by councillors unanimously at the September 2020 meeting.

“These hours included 6am to 8am during the months between November and February at the Wee Waa Pool.

“These hours were adopted dependent on demand.

“Although demand dropped 40 per cent between December and January, council continued to operate the morning hours according to the plan without disruption.

“From previous seasons, data collected from the gate shows that these figures drop further as the temperature lowers during March making it extremely difficult to justify the logistical and operational costs in opening for two hours in the morning,” read the NSC statement.

Early morning swimmer Carmel Schwager said she would be very keen to work with NSC to ensure the pool can remain open for the whole season next year and said the group just didn’t expect a change in hours.

“I know there was a plan distributed but because it was a large document and no one I knew was alerted to the change of the morning swimming hours ending in February, we missed it,” said Mrs Schwager.

“Similarly, there may have been correspondence about Community Consultation Sessions but none of our group was aware of them, otherwise we would have been there.

“The morning session has never ended before the pool closed so it wasn’t something we were expecting.

“There are fewer swimmers in February but it is being used every morning. Wee Waa will never have the numbers of Narrabri.

“Many of our group have bought season tickets but we won’t get to use them for the whole season because of this early closure.

“We don’t want to end up like Boggabri with no morning swimming at all.

“We’d like work with council to restore the morning sessions next year, even if they opened three mornings a week in March.

“I’d also like to acknowledge Cr Maxine Booby who did try to help us once we knew about the change, but hopefully we can make sure it doesn’t happen again next year.”