Pool placed: City locks in Drysdale Sports Precinct as site for north Bellarine aquatic facility

A POOL on the North Bellarine is drawing ever closer, with a report prepared for the City of Greater Geelong council recommending the Drysdale Sports Precinct as the best location for it to be built.
Councillors resolved to agree with the recommendation on the pool’s preferred location at their Community Focus council meeting on Tuesday night.
According to a council-funded scoping study earlier this year, residents in Drysdale, Clifton Springs, Curlewis, Portarlington and St Leonards have lower access to swimming pools than those in almost any other area of greater Geelong. None are within a 10-minute drive of a pool.
The study found two potential sites, both in Drysdale, as the most suitable for construction of a new 50-metre outdoor pool: the City of Greater Geelong Drysdale Maintenance Depot site on Collins Street (next to Christian College); and the planned Drysdale Sports Precinct at the intersection of Grubb Road and the new Drysdale Bypass.
The report to councillors states a full assessment of both sites found the pool should be built at the Drysdale Sports Precinct for these key reasons:

• The integration of the pool into the sport precinct site demonstrates a high degree of commonality and synergy with the other regional sporting and leisure infrastructure and services planned for the precinct
• The site is highly accessible to a larger population of school-age children and their families that attend and/or frequently visit the neighbouring schools, and is also equidistant from most towns on the north Bellarine
• Building the pool in a precinct alongside other sporting facilities and a significant school population provides a ready-made population of potential users, and the site can more readily accommodate growth or expansion of the facility, and
• The site provides for a higher level of public amenity located within proposed public open space.

Stage 1 of the proposed centre will have a 50-metre pool, multipurpose spaces, change facilities and a pavilion.
The city has allocated $750,000 towards the facility in its 2020-21 budget, alongside a $10 million commitment from the Coalition Government.
Geelong mayor Stephanie Asher said in choosing the Drysdale Sporting Precinct as the location for the new 50-metre pool, the council had “taken a huge step towards delivering this long-awaited facility for the Bellarine community”.
“The sporting precinct emerged as the clear choice given it’s so accessible from all towns on the north Bellarine, as well as to residents coming up Grubb Road from the south.”
Victorian Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson – who made the Coalition’s $10 million commitment as Liberal member for Corangamite -welcomed the recommendation of the Drysdale Sports Precinct but said the state Labor government needed to commit funding towards stage 2 of the facility, which would create a neighbouring indoor pool and ancillary facilities.