www.rocketqueen.fora.pl

[zvswgogna]

Council floats sale of public pools Gold Coast Top Story
THE Gold Coast future Olympians may soon be training in private pools as the council considers selling its seven public facilities to save money.
The idea comes less than a week after public outrage at the treatment of Olympic gold medallist Michael Wenden, who looks set to be stripped of the management rights at Palm Beach pool, which he has held for 34 years.
Gold Coast City Council owns seven public pools at Helensvale, Miami, Mudgeeraba, Nerang, Palm Beach, Southport and Woongoolba but has signalled intentions to cut costs by tendering the management rights to large national companies.
The idea of selling the pools was raised by Burleigh councillor Greg Betts, who said they were now commercial operations instead of a community service.
"The question that came to my mind is the pools are very similar to a private gym where people come in and pay for classes and training and things like that," he said.
"The question is: Has it become more than a community service and more like a commercial operation, and should it be sold off?
"(Council) officers will be addressing that in the leadup to the September budget review."
Have your say on the feedback form below
Cr Betts said the number of privately run pools already in operation on the Coast, coupled with the recent interest in council tendering process, suggested pools could be run at a profit.
But he admitted the selloff plan was likely to cause community anger.
"There are always going to be people who are concerned about these things, asking if the prices or the services will change," he said.
"Generally people jump to conclusions on the negative side of things but that will all be part of the investigations."
Finance boss William OwenJones stressed the idea was preliminary and needed further scrutiny.
"Just as the people of Palm Beach are passionate about the management of their local pool, I am sure you will find the wider population of the Gold Coast is passionate about not selling pools,[url=http://www.sport.fr/business/louisvuitton.html]sac louis vuitton[/url]," he said.