Work to build a state-of-the-art health and wellbeing hub in place of the St Albans Leisure Centre is a step closer.
The Brimbank council says work on the hub is imminent with the leisure centre slated to close in April.
The council is yet to reveal the costing estimates for the hub, but it is tipped to be more than the $60 million the council has allocated for the project.
Despite a vocal appeal by the council, both the state and federal government’s are yet to pledge anything in the way of funding, leaving Brimbank ratepayers to foot the bill.
The council recently submitted an application seeking $2 million from the state government, but not all councillors thought that was near enough.
At the council’s February meeting Cr John Hedditch lamented the lack of funding and said the council should reconsider pushing ahead at this time.
“We go into this project, go to tender, with ratepayers of this community coughing up the lot and that in my view is inappropriate. We should not be doing this,” Cr Hedditch said.
“You have have to have financial parameters around them from the start that say if you don’t achieve your goals around partnership funding and things like that, you wait until you get that.”
Tate Papworth
