Latrobe City Council must assure the community funding provided for the new Traralgon pool facility will be put to good use without further delay, Member for Eastern Victoria Harriet Shing says.
It comes after revelations Latrobe City made an application to the federal government’s Regional Growth Fund for an additional $10 million, on top of the state government’s $46 million contribution, to go towards geothermal infrastructure and other additional works at the yet-to-be-constructed facility.
Member for Gippsland Darren Chester told The Express the Regional Growth Fund was oversubscribed and a decision on the funding allocation was yet to be made.
“The community has been waiting too long for a project that has been funded in 2017 to get underway,” Ms Shing said.
“Council indicated it won’t get underway until mid next year – that was before we found out about this plan to expand the facility using additional federal funding, if it becomes available.
“I think that council needs to assure the community that the state government funding, that it has had well over a year now, will be put to good use to benefit the community as soon as possible and without any further delay.”
Latrobe City chief executive Gary Van Driel said the application would not have any impact on the projected timeline for the delivery of the facility.
“Council will assess opportunities for further grant applications if this one is not successful,” he said in a statement.
“However, these applications do not have any impact on the current program for the delivery of the Gippsland Regional Aquatic Centre project. Any new funding would be complementary to the existing project.
“The geothermal option is supplementary to the existing project so GRAC will continue with or without any additional funding.”
Mr Van Driel said council’s opportunity to provide the additional funding itself would be “extremely limited”.
“Council will continue to pursue other partners to assist with funding,” he said.
“The cost to deliver the geothermal solution is significant and is not able to be funded within the current project budget. Therefore, we are seeking additional funding.” Construction is expected to begin at Hubert Osborn Park in March or April 2019.
