Community seeks longer pool season, early morning access

THE new Winchelsea swimming pool has closed for the season, just a month after opening its doors to the community for the first time, as both locals and visitors to the town call for an extension to the length of the facility’s season and its daily opening hours.

Haidee Benning, who is leading these community efforts, launched a survey earlier this year to gather information about the community’s aspirations for the pool and their preferred use of the space.

“The community waited two years and went two summer seasons without any pool, and I just feel very, very strongly that now that we do have an upgraded facility, it’s absolutely essential that the shire reallocate their budget and acknowledge that the community wants access to it at reasonable hours,” she said.

She has since received 200 responses, with the feedback pointing to a desire to allow lap swimmers to access the pool in the early mornings and families to hit the pool before the sun reaches its afternoon peak.

Many also want to see flexibility in the pool’s opening hours on extremely hot days, with some proposing a closing time of 8pm, an extension to its season length, and a season that runs from early November through to the end of the Easter school holidays.

“More and more people are moving into the region,” Ms Benning said.

“The shire really do need to acknowledge that the community is crying out for greater access.

“The community [are] coming together and saying ‘We want this, we need this for our health. We want to teach our children to swim. We want to have a social hub and connect’.”

She is now working towards putting together a committee to better advocate for the community’s use of the pool, with plans to present the findings of her survey to the shire when she has received closer to 1,000 responses.

The shire’s general manager of community life Damian Waight said the Winchelsea pool would would reopen again later this year when the weather improved, but did not provide any details about when this might occur.

“This first season showed the love for the pool and the importance of council’s $8.9 million investment in the project.

“With construction finishing ahead of schedule, we were able to open in summer, including a week of free admission, and have a later than usual close to the season on March 30.”

He said the pool had always and would continue to operate seasonally, noting daily attendances this year had dropped sharply with the arrival of colder weather.

“Daily opening hours are influenced by a number of factors including attendance figures, staffing requirements, community input and balancing council’s budget.

“Funding choices need to consider other important community priorities such as maintaining facilities, roads and funding things like operating the Winchelsea Shire Hall.

“We look forward to considering community feedback as we shape up plans for the 2025-26 summer season.”

The shire did not respond directly to questions from this masthead about the ongoing costs associated with running the pool.