Micheal Lane's Swimming Pool Submission

Michael Lane has put in his submission to Council and has gratefully allowed me to post it on the blog
Garry

19 March 2010

Michael Lane

Dear Councillors

I am writing to ask you to seriously consider NOT closing the Swimming pool at Harcourt, and my reasons are :

Children need very regular swimming sessions to gain real and solid security in the water, which will quite likely save their life some day in the future. They will not be able to get the necessary hours and even days in the water if they have to go all the way to Castlemaine, especially with the expense of both the travel and the Entry fee. The waiting time and Driving time that the parents would have to cope with is another major reason that the children of Harcourt would miss out on the essential long hours of practice in the water. I fear that drownings will increase among the children of Harcourt because of closing the Pool.

We are trying to build a community, and we need important amenities to do it Harcourt is a growing village which adds a lot of character to the district.

The pool as it exists is a very pleasant meeting place and promotes social cohesion between families.

Outlying communities like ours need support, and definitely do not need important amenities like the Pool stolen away from them. This would be damaging to the community. I would assert that what we need is less centralization, not more centralization.