Hannah Hammoud
Brimbank council will implement further safety measures at the Brimbank Aquatic and Wellness Centre following a review sparked by a number of ‘serious incidents’.
The extended measures follows on from a notice of motion raised by councillor Maria Kerr at a meeting in February this year where she called on council to undertake a review of safety at the aquatic centre and suggested a possible ban on mobile phone use in the pool area.
At the time, Cr Kerr said there were numerous concerns with the level of parental, carer and guardian supervision of minors whilst in the pool.
Council delivered its findings at the council meeting on August 22 and will not implement the mobile phone ban.
Measures such as increased language signing, audible messaging and the implementation of Watch around Water committees are among some of the proposed improvements.
Cr Kerr thanked the community for bringing the issues to her attention and said she is looking forward to seeing the changes implemented.
“I’d like to thank council officers for taking my motion seriously and doing a full and thorough review of the safety concerns,” she said.
“… there were a number of items that were identified and I’m hopeful that once they’re in place, we won’t have to deal with the serious incidents that we were dealing with previously,” she said.
Other concerns raised as part of the notice of motion included the amount of accessible car parks available, the level of lighting in the car park and pedestrian crossings.
Council will install flashing lights and required floodlighting in Main Street near the zebra crossing after the review found that the current lighting does not meet the required Australian Standards.
There is also a business case currently being developed for an additional 78 car spaces and a change from nine standard car parks to disability car parks to be added to council’s 2023-24 capital works budget.
