A curious tender document that has appeared this week suggests the ACT government is looking for a major review of the running of the territory's public swimming pools.
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"ACT Property Group (ACTPG) is seeking a suitably qualified and experienced consultant to undertake a feasibility study and provide a comprehensive costing report for future use of territory owned pools," a tender notice published on Thursday said.
What makes it curious is the requirement that potential suppliers or anyone (including nosey journalists) wanting to view the tender documents needs to sign a confidentiality agreement before seeing the information.
On October 17 there will be an event where potential suppliers will receive an industry briefing. But the event appears unlikely to be open to the media, again placing confidentiality requirements on anyone hoping to glean an insight into the government's thinking.
There are of course sound reasons for keeping contract details confidential during a tender process. But the secrecy around important public assets like the city's public pools seems a shame, when there is so much community interest in the subject.
The long-running saga of the future of the Phillip pool has been a sore point for the community of Woden and surrounds, with the welcome news from developer Geocon it would reopen in time for the upcoming summer holidays after two years of languishing unused.
There also remain many unresolved questions around the future of the Civic pool site, which appears to sit on prime land that has been the subject of continual speculation involving stadiums, changes to nearby Parkes Way and a future emergency services headquarters.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr has previously said the principal challenge of redeveloping the current Civic Pool site would be excavating the contaminated site, which has a sewer and storm water line running through it.
With a new operator, Belgravia Health and Leisure Group, recently appointed to operate five of the government-owned pools - Canberra Olympic Pool, Gungahlin Leisure Centre, Stromlo Leisure Centre, Lakeside Leisure Centre and Dickson Aquatic Centre - there is much change but little information coming from the government.
What Canberrans want most is reassurance their much-loved public swimming pools are safe from disappearing and that they will be maintained and improved to service the community.
A little more transparency on what those plans entail would be welcomed by many of those public pool patrons.
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