Community provide feedback on proposed Recreation and Aquatic Facility

The City is investigating the feasibility and funding opportunities for a recreation and aquatic facility (RAF) for the City of South Perth and surrounding area.

 

We recently invited community feedback on the proposed RAF and asked for your ideas about what features and amenities could be included in the proposed facility.

 

We received a great response and some fantastic ideas, all of which will be considered as part of the feasibility evaluation. Overall the feedback has been positive with 83% of those who responded indicating that they are interested in having a RAF in the City.

 

Valuable ideas were posted on Your Say South Perth and these will be taken into consideration during the evaluation. There were also some key themes that were identified through the questions and concerns raised.

 

Below is a summary of your questions and the City’s responses.

 

The aim of the feasibility project is to determine how a RAF can be self-sufficient and to identify the extent of funding and ongoing partnerships required to achieve this.

 

For the project to be self-funding, financial support from a variety of sources such as Federal and State Government and the commercial sector will be required.

 

The City is therefore in discussion with a range of key stakeholders to determine the level of potential support available for a facility that is financially sustainable both now and into the future.

 

Initial feedback from Curtin University and state and local sporting organisations and clubs has been extremely positive. Federal funding is currently being actively sought in the lead up to the upcoming elections.

 

One of the key strategies in the City’s Strategic Community Plan (SCP) 2017-2027 is to: plan for and promote the development of recreation and aquatic facilities to service community needs. The SCP defines community aspirations, having been developed following substantial community and stakeholder engagement and feedback.

 

Ongoing community feedback has continued to identify a strong demand for an aquatic facility to be located within the City. Twelve out of 15 local schools currently travel at least 6km outside the City to participate in swimming lessons, school carnivals and general learn to swim programs. A pool would also help to address high waiting lists for in-demand programs such as Infant Swim and Learn to Swim in the area. The RAF has the potential to be more than just a sports centre or a pool, with the ability to provide the community with a wide range of integrated health and wellbeing outcomes.

 

Conventional single-use aquatic facilities are generally not self-sufficient and require ongoing financial subsidy to meet operational and capital costs. The integration of sporting and recreation facility components into a multi-use facility provides economies of scale in program/service provision and this concept is also more likely to attract a higher level of partnership and funding opportunities. These mutually beneficial commercial partnerships subsidise capital and ongoing operational costs, allowing the City to maintain a vibrant and sustainable facility well into the future.

 

Shortlisted sites, including Collier Park Golf Course and George Burnett Leisure Centre are being assessed based on factors such as available space, funding partnership opportunities, traffic management, the impact on the environment, accessibility to main roads, bicycle and pedestrian networks and public transport. No final decision has been made at this stage on the proposed location, and the level of funding achieved will be critical to this decision.

 

The City is still at the early stages of evaluating this project and will continue to work on the feasibility/business case which is expected to be presented to Council in June 2019.

 

As the feasibility evaluation progresses the City’s website will be updated.