Cash-strapped: Maroondah Council has delayed the construction of Ringwood’s new pool, Aquanation, (pictured here as an artist's impression) until July 2013.
MAROONDAH Council has voted 8-1 in favour of delaying the construction of Ringwood’s new pool 'Aquanation' until July 2013.
By then, the council will know if it has been successful in its application for a $15 million federal grant for the pool.
If unsuccessful, it will ''reconsider the scope of the project''.
Only councillor Christina Gleeson voted against the recommendation and said the decision to reconsider the project’s size should the funding not be assured was wrong.
‘‘If we go to narrow the scope then we will never make a profit on the pool,’’ she said.
‘‘It’s like building a freeway with two lanes, and then deciding in five years time you need four lanes. You can’t do anything shortfall, you need to the whole thing or nothing at all.’’
Councillor Les Wilmott said the decision to delay the pool was sensible, and that if the council committed to the pool and did not win the funding round, it would be in deep trouble.
‘‘Either rates have to go up significantly — close to a 5 per cent rate increase — or services would be cut, or a combination of both. We don’t want to see our services cut, no one wants that,’’ he said.
‘‘[Councillors] would not be able to make a decision on finance because we’d be locked in.’’
The council had previously budgeted for the full $46.5 million facility.
However, after only receiving a $3 million state grant to date and being forced to pay an unexpected $7.6 million local government superannuation shortfall, the council announced last week it was not in the financial position to fund the pool without the help of the federal government.