AS THE temperatures nudge 30 degrees every day out here in Nundle, an entire community is left wondering why Tamworth Regional Council chose to leave essential maintenance work on the Nundle pool until the end of September.
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This work should have been done over the winter. Now our pool is closed until the end of October.
As children here cannot take themselves off to another pool nearby, the hot temperatures merely cause young boys and girls to swim in the Peel River, with its black- and brown-snake-infested banks.
As the president of Nundle Swimming Club, the decision to open the pool a month late greatly impacts upon our swimming season, one that was due to resume at the start of the school term.
This is a vital service that functions as not only a social gathering for Nundle and Woolomin students but one that teaches water safety in an area littered with dams, creeks and the Peel River.
Nundle Public School is located across the road from the pool and in term 4 the students go swimming every Friday for sport.
The intensive swimming program, aimed at infants children, is due to start soon.
Once again, the residents of Nundle, and other small towns such as Kootingal, also in the same position with its pool, are treated as second-class citizens, despite the council regularly collecting our rather hefty rates.
The council cannot use an economic rationalist approach to something that is a community service and keeps our children safe.
Our lifeguard in Nundle is a local father who knows all the children and is aware of their needs in the pool.
Tamworth Regional Council should make amends to local communities that, although small, are very disgruntled and vocal.
Nicola Worley
Nundle