Council to look at support options for Learn to Swim

Narrabri Shire councillors have requested a report to come back to council regarding options and costings to support Narrabri’s Learn to Swim program.

A report tabled at Tuesday’s meeting recommended that $10,000 be allocated from the Community Grants budget to fund a 50 per cent discount for children to enter aquatic centres for formal learn-to-swim classes.

The matter was pushed back following discussion by councillors, and input from council staff, about various scenarios. The discussion follows a passionate public campaign and community petition with more than 1000 signatures.

At June’s ordinary council meeting, the instructors and Narrabri community members gave presentations, strongly opposing proposed increase in lane hire fees in the shire.

The increase was passed as part of a recommendation that council adopt the 2024/2025 Operational Plan.

Instructors raised concerns about the impact of an increase in lane hire fees on local families and the pressure it will cause, when providing an accessible service in town is so important and learning to swim is so vital.

“Families are ultimately worse off,” instructor Anne Bennett told The Courier following the meeting.

“We have families who are already struggling to afford it.

“We do what we can because we want to see kids in the pool, not out of it.

“We’re not fighting for us; we’re fighting for our families.

“We put a lot of time into our submission.”

Instructor Tracey Tomlinson echoed Anne’s concerns after the meeting and she told The Courier cost increases will ultimately go to the families and that the instructors are concerned about the effect it will have on families’ ability to send their children to swim classes.

“We don’t make a fortune out of this,” said Tracey.

“It’s something we do for the community.”

The instructors also voiced concerns about the breakdown of information tabled at the council meeting, particularly to the reference that they make up to $170 an hour and the instructors described this figure as inaccurate.

While worrying about this year’s increase, instructors also fear about future lane hire fee increases following this year’s rise.

In Gunnedah, the fee was $14 an hour, increasing to $15 in the latest changes to fees.

In her presentation to council, opposing the proposed increase, private learn-to-swim teacher Lisa Mullins said, “My first question was why?”.

“I can see Narrabri Shire has written in the business paper ‘why’ and we assure you, the staff are grossly wrong in their assumptions.

“Firstly, it’s not a competitive regional price as suggested as Gunnedah pool is half this proposed rate.”

“As opposed to what is written on page 51, we as coaches do pay an entry fee on top of our lane hire,” Lisa explained.

“It has never been included in the lane hire cost.

“Secondly, the average income that the council member has worked out for learn-to-swim teacher is very much incorrect, ridiculous in fact.

“I do not earn that much.

“Last financial year, I earned $6365 from lessons and had $3030 in expenses, this is taxable income of $3335.

“As business owners, we have overhead costs … these include pool entry, lane hire, insurance/liability, my licence, equipment, working with children, training that includes CPR, professional development.

“The hours spent are more than just those in the pool.

“There is admin, invoice, timetables for each term, communicating with parents.

“As for the breakdown of estimates. We would not have six students in a pod three-times-three metres, you would only have a maximum of four students and that would depend on their ability.

“The only time I would in that space is for a mums and bubs group, which I provide that service on Friday mornings and what works best with our community families is a pay as you go.

“On average I would still only have four in that lesson.

“As for the 25-metre lane hire, we still only have an average of three to four students per half hour.

“This is so every student gets the maximum of their ability in each lesson.

“Whether it’s water confidence to learning competitive strokes.

“We also provide one-on-one lessons. Fifteen-minute private lessons.

“As you can see on the business paper that is a cost of $20. Still only a total of $80 per hour.

“My hourly costs on average are $80 to $150, not what council has proposed.

“This does not include my deduction, which I spoke about previously.

“I only work at the pool two to three hours a day for three to four days.

“Much less in winter months.

“As you can see at $3000 profit for the year, we are not greedy businesses looking to boost profits, but teachers helping to ensure the safety of our children.

“I clearly don’t do it for the money but for the community benefit.

“We request that council does not adopt the proposed fees and charges schedule until the lane hire fees have been amended.

Instructor Anne Bennett said, “it’s not about us – it’s about our kids and our families”.

“I run Anne’s Diving Dolphins at the Narrabri Aquatics Centre. I currently do private lessons, mini squad, squad, I’ve taken on a lot of the Narrabri Stingray kids because they no longer have a coach.

“I always pay on time.

“I’m just trying to offer something to the kids that’s not going to be so expensive that families can’t afford it because we have to then pass on our extra costs to them.”

In her presentation to council, Tracey Tomlinson said stressed the instructors were “providing a lifesaving skill”.

“It is a skill that every kid should learn. Whether their parents can afford it or not.

“And I’m thinking that maybe we need to sit down together and come up with a way that we can increase the number of people coming through the front doors as opposed to increasing our costs exponentially because if we do that, then it’s just going to mean a lot of kids don’t learn to swim.

“And that’s the bottom line.”

Instructor Abby O’Brien told councillors she had recently moved back to Narrabri from Newcastle “to provide an additional swimming service to the community, especially because this is where my heart is”.

“I have grown up here my whole life and the fact that at this point, it’s really not worth me even coming into the pool if there are going to be these fees increase.

“I could have earned a lot more money staying in the city but I did want to come home in order to provide this service for the community.

“I’ve got a lot of people that are already scraping the bottom of the barrel in order to give this essential service for their kids, let alone having to pay entry fee and my fees as well.

“I do not want to put my fees up anymore. And unfortunately, if that is the case, I’m more than likely not going to be able to run my business anymore because it’s not going to be possible for either myself or the families that I cater for.

“If that is the case, then I might as well just move back and work for another company where I would earn better money.

“But I did want to provide that for my community.

“So, if there is a possibility that we can try to not increase the lane hire as much, then I would be able to stay in the community and provide the additional service as well as these lovely ladies,” said Abby in her presentation.

At Tuesday’s meeting, councillors debated about subsidising the cost of lane hire.

However, staff cautioned elected members about potential impacts from subsidising a business.

If council was to adopt the approach of subsidising a business, such as through subsidising lane hire fees, the matter would be the subject of a period of public exhibition for external consultation.

“From staff perspective, we decided to pursue this course of action because it would reduce the cost directly to those children that were undertaking swim lessons and therefore an alternative way of achieving the goal of those Learn to Swim instructors who gave that presentation,” general manager Rob Williams said.

“But coming back to the principle that subsidising private business is a difficult space for councillors to get into.

“It might open doors you don’t want to open.”

Cr Ron Campbell disagreed, saying it was an entirely different set of circumstances.

“The whole premise from the start has been about the changes to line hire fees,” he said before initially discussing a potential amendment.

Cr Lisa Richardson spoke in favour of amending the decision to include lane hire fees and later suggested free swimming pool entry for Learn to Swim participants could be an option in a report brought back to council.

If we don’t have Learn to Swim instructors, we don’t have children learning how to swim. It’s a lifesaving skill,” Cr Richardson said.

Cr Richardson said the service was needed in all shire swimming pools.

Cr Rohan Boehm spoke in favour of the original motion, to subsidise pool entry.

“Entry fees are the part that we, as council, can control,” Cr Boehm said.

“Where as subsidy of lane hire has the unfortunate opportunity for operators in the system to increase the cost of their operations on the basis there is now funding available.

“I think the most effective and most direct way to support the children is for us as a council to directly support their entry.

“The business of operating a swim class is really up to the owners and operators of those swim classes.”

Cr Greg Lamont also suggested council test the water, with the options available, and a report to come back to the August meeting.

Mr Williams suggested that councillors leave the matter for the next council meeting while the staff undertake a full review.