CARBON COPY OF SELWYN POOL
PONT WANTS $750,000 FROM DCC TO INVESTIGATE A REPLICA !!!!
Funny that, given his connections………………
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{Original correspondence sighted and filed. Ratepayer name removed. -Eds}
Received from Cr Lee Vandervis
Tue, 19 May 2015 at 2:02 p.m.
From: Lee Vandervis
Sent: Tuesday, 19 May 2015 2:02 p.m.
To: ██████████
Cc: Elizabeth Kerr [What if? Dunedin]
Dear ██████████ ,
Thank you for raising the Mosgiel Pool design and Shaun Pont conflict of interest issues which have been highlighted on the ‘What If?’ site.
I was disappointed that the ODT did not report my direct challenge to Mr Pont’s claimed need for $750,000 of rates funding to pay for initial Mosgiel pool design work, when the pool they want has already been designed, and built [by local contractors Calder Stewart] in Selwyn.
We were told repeatedly at the Mosgiel meeting that the desired pool complex was a “carbon copy of the Selwyn pool”, making the requested $750,000 for initial design potentially the most expensive bits of carbon copy paper in local government history.
As I saw it, Mr Pont not only failed to declare his glaring conflict of interest at the Mosgiel meeting, but he failed to account for the claimed $750,000 cost of an initial pool design needed, saying that there were different ground conditions [both level alluvial plains], different parking requirements [there is an existing car park next door], and different more efficient heat-pump system planned [this detail not needed for initial design].
My question as to ‘why 90% of the speakers listed as wanting to present in person to the Mosgiel meeting did not show up?’ was not answered satisfactorily. It was suggested that there was a problem with advising people of the date of the Mosgiel meeting, yet more Councillors managed to show up than local people wanting to speak in support of the Pool project.
Kind regards,
Cr. Vandervis
On 18/05/15 10:46 AM, “ ██████████ ” wrote:
Hi Lee,
I was at the LTP Plan submission hearing in Mosgiel and heard Shaun Pont of the pool trust asking for $750,000 from Council for further investigation work on pool design etc. I believe there is a vested interest here as Shaun Pont is a director of Logic Group and stands to gain financially from this money if Council is stupid enough to grant it. He also appears to be affiliated with Arrow International, and we know how they benefited from the stadium.
You are the only one on Council I can trust to speak up if I am correct, and can see through the spin doctoring of the pool trust. Best of luck and keep up the good work.
Regards
██████████
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Taieri Aquatic Centre —proposal
Related Post and Comments:
18.5.15 NEWSFLASH —Mosgiel pool, tracking [PONT] . . . . [see other links]
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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
*Images: Selwyn Aquatic Centre – engenium.co.nz (exterior); xypex.co.nz (interior) | Proposed Taieri Aquatic Centre – scanned renders by Baker Garden Architects, from TCFT feasibility report (Jan 2015)
This Selwyn, was he a quizmaster? I know of Selwyn, Rakaia Gorge. I mean, there is no covered pool on the way to Mt Hutt.
To help, brownestudy
Selwyn Aquatic Centre, address:
71 Broadlands Drive, Rolleston 7643
Cull made a big fuss about holding a special hearing out at Mosgiel, but it now appears that 90% of those listed to speak didn’t turn up.
That begs the question. Were those 90% listed to speak, real or fake submissions put in by pool supporters out to boost numbers, and grab headlines.
What steps do council take to verify that all submissions are legit ?
Jacob, are you suggesting some were from M. Mouse, D. Duck, Rob Muldoon and Watt R. Wings? The first 3 were regular sellers of possum skins back when skins fetched good prices. When I say “the first 3”. actually there was more than one person with each of those names, coincidence eh, in a small city!
Belated news at ODT. —TCFT will regret this appointment.
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### ODT Online Wed, 20 May 2015
Mosley takes trust reins from Stedman
By Shawn McAvinue
Michael Stedman has been “knocked sideways” by sickness and has stood down as the head of the trust gunning for a multimillion-dollar aquatic facility in Mosgiel. […] Irene Mosley was the project manager of a successful fundraising campaign to keep neurosurgical services in Dunedin.
Read more
Mosley is one of Cull’s crew, a failed Greater Dunedin candidate !!!!
She sure as hell didn’t do the major fundraising for Neuro services.
Get Real. Just a lackey.
See comments at this thread.
Her other great success was organizing the Balclutha Sunday market. It lasted about 6 weeks.
(via 39 Dunedin News)
{NOTE. The points listed here from the video have since been shown to be incorrect – go to https://dunedinstadium.wordpress.com/2015/05/07/dcc-draft-ltp-201516-202425-public-submissions-online/#comment-62353 -Eds}
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DCC gives support in principle for $17.5 million pool complex at Mosgiel.
● $6 million set aside for development, to be spent in 2018/19 financial year.
● Up to $300,000 made available now for detailed planning.
● Interest-free loan of $50,000 made available to Taieri Community Facilities Trust (aka Pooling Together).
● Detailed design and cost option to Council by October this year.
● TCFT has to come up with $7.5 million.
****
### dunedintv.co.nz May 21, 2015 – 7:01pm
Council supports new Mosgiel swimming pool complex
An estimated $17.5m swimming pool complex in Mosgiel has the support of the city council. Councillors have voted to support in principal the development of the new aquatic facility. They’re putting $6m aside for the project, to be spent in the 2018-19 financial year. And they’re spending up to $300,000 now, on detailed planning of the complex. The council’s also giving a $50,000 interest free loan to the trust managing the project. The trust has to come up with a further $7.5m for the pool. Councillors expect to see detailed design and cost options by the end of October.
Ch39 [no video available]
All the trust’s conflicts of interest have been wiped out, and about time. Council Staff are to take over to investigate project costs, design options and site location. Why wasn’t this approach taken from the start?
Congratulations Councillors for seeing through a corrupt presentation for the new pool complex. I now call for Bill Feather and his board to resign for the careless way that they handed over their elected responsibilities to a trust to represent the community. $34,000 of ratepayers funds has been wasted on the trust, and council staff now have to pick up the damage that this trust has done in the community.
Now let us see the trust front up with the $7.5 million in the bank. I wait for the day when we see our main street developer and businessman front up with a couple of hundred thousand dollars to start the ball rolling. It will be interesting to see how deep the pockets are of those businessmen who were to profit by the strategic placement of the pool site that they were to profit from.
Last thing we want is huge run up of staff costs in doing all the diligence if we then find the trust has no ability to raise funds itself. The whole project is double jeopardy to Dunedin ratepayers.
Unfortunately Elizabeth. The council was conned into handing over the $30,000. That is the cost of buying votes these days. Now that the horse has bolted with the money, the council is committed to more funding. Sounds like the stadium all over again. The question that needs to be asked is why the council had no confidence in telling the community board that they were the elected representatives, and to run the pool project in conjunction with the community and council staff?
The council bypassing the board and funding the trust makes the community board the non event that it has turned into under the present leadership.
This is the community board that whinges that council does not listen to them, or give them more responsibilities. Yet when the pool issue raised its head in Mosgiel the board couldn’t pass it on to a trust quick enough.
Take the issue of the site for the picnic table in the Mosgiel main street. They have been stuffing around now for three years (remember of John Wilson Drive) with reports and meetings and still haven’t made a decision, and the ratepayers pay $100,000 a year to have this puppet board sit every six weeks to pontificate, and twiddle their fingers.
Most of those on Mosgiel Taieri Community Board were puppets for the business and developer crowd pushing from behind with every rort under the sun in mind – just like Brown who allowed CST to (oops) cream the cash / rob the ratepayers blind in ways that will soon become evident whether or not DCC attempts a whitewash investigation, following “legal advice”. Some friends could get singed, as Taylor shows…. bad blood.
Cr Lord appears to be promoting the pool for schools. Schools are supposed to be taxpayer funded not funded by ratepayers, but I suppose he has to give support to all those school children who where targeted to fill out submissions in favour of the pool. Future voters for him.
### ODT Online Wed, 22 Jul 2015
Feedback wanted on pool options
Source: DCC
Over the next two weeks, the Dunedin City Council, in partnership with the Taieri Community Facilities trust, will be seeking feedback from the community on sites shortlisted for the new Aquatic Centre in Mosgiel. Since the council decided to allocate $6 million in the LTP for the project, work has begun identifying the preferred site and calling for requests for proposals from interested quantity surveyors and architects.
Read more
█ Questionnaires and further information available on the DCC website from tomorrow Thursday, at http://www.poolingtogether.org.nz or Mosgiel library.
Forget about the feedback, look at the new LTAP. Page 166. Aquatic Services new Capital Expenditure: Mosgiel Pool$14.578m in 2018/19. It will happen regardless of feedback.
Calvin. Consultation means telling people what’s good for them and goddam they are gonna get it.
Surely it doesn’t mean there is something which you can speak against with reasoned arguments.
What arya?
Also on page 166 of the new LTAP, Aquatic Services new Capital Expenditure: Mosgiel Pool $410,000 in 2016/17 and $14.478 million in 2018/19.
But look at ODT report on 22 May 2015:
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/343130/mosgiel-pool-wins-support
“Council allocated a placeholder budget of $6 million in the 2018-19 financial year for the facility.”
So at what point did the $6 million in May change to $14.478 million? I couldn’t find any reference to the change in ODT. Maybe I missed it.
Need to look at council minutes.
$14.57 million? I thought that it was only going to cost $15 million and that some 100 Taieri fat cats were going to cough half of that sum ($7.5 million) with $1.5 million of that coming from a super fat cat (Taieri Tiger). The maximum ratepayer exposure was only going to be $7.5 million. Isn’t that what our $50,000 fundraising feasibility research study told us only months ago?
My professional opinion of that report contained absolutely no reliable empirical or contractual evidence that any of this money would be forthcoming. I suppose one of the only bright aspects of this affair if Calvin’s comment is correct, is that the Council, by budgeting pretty much full ratepayer funding to this project in 2018/19, has formally confirmed that professional opinion in a timely manner. Regrettably I assume that the invoice for this ‘research’ has been presented and paid.
As to feedback Calvin, I think that you misread the call for consultation. It does not mention whether or not or not. Merely where, and I would still not rule out ‘migration’ to greener Wingatui pastures on the basis of this consultation, based upon the predictable strong opposition to the three Memorial Gardens sites and the unbudgeted cost of getting rid of the existing pool at the other (fourth) site.
Green Island remains the obvious site given the access and claimed catchment for this facility. There is no reason why it should be anywhere else now that it appears that the Mosgiel community are not paying anything for it. If it is being entirely funded by the wider community then the wider community’s interests should be the sole basis of choice.
If it must be in Mosgiel then Memorial Park remains the obvious site – unless you are a developer.
Rob, I didn’t misread the call for consultation. I don’t do consultation with that lot having long since realised once a subject arrives at that point it is virtually a done deal. No, I only know what I read on page 166 of the latest LTAP. It clearly shows budgeted Capital Expenditure of $14.578m scheduled for 2018/19 and a figure of $410,000 in 2016/17. Now that looks like a done deal to me, why else would those figures be there? The fact that these will almost certainly escalate to meet the aspirations of the advocates is neither here nor there.
On my daily walk around the Wingatui roads this morning, I ran into my old friend the Thoroughbred, who had been talking to a filly that he meets from time to time. She reckons that the land owner of one of the sites the pool trust is peddling has never had any communication with the pool trust.
Can anybody give me a URL for consulting with the Council. I can see no point in wasting my time consulting with the Pool Trust.
Good point. As noted, the information will be loaded at the DCC website today.
I have asked around. There appears to have been no formal approval process for this $15 million, only a contested one for the $6 million.
Between this ‘pool fiasco’ and the derivatives disclosures this LTAP is a load of ‘codswallop’. Hey! what’s different?
I have just been on the pool consultation document page on the DCC website.
It is rather confusing, or is it designed to be confusing or misleading. I take it to be designed to be misleading. A bit like the cycleways design.
It starts off by telling us that the existing pool no longer meets the needs of the local community, but it does not tell us that all this can be upgraded for $2.5 million. Some $12 million cheaper than the proposal for a new pool. The upgrade of the present pool is not even an option.
It then shows aerial photos of the four sites. These sites are marked with a very small circle. This is the most misleading part of all. These small circles appear to be designed to give the viewer the impression that the footprint of the pool is very small, where in fact the footprint of the pool is enormous.
Why have they not overlayed the true footprint of the pool on each of the four sites ? I know for a fact that the Memorial Gardens site will require the destruction of at least 50 mature trees. The aerial photo and the circle of the proposed site shows that no trees will be disturbed. A little honesty by those involved in this consultation document would go a long way.
Why have all the sites for a new pool been placed in Mosgiel. It has been suggested that as all Dunedin ratepayers will be contributing the majority of funding towards this new pool. Then any site within the Mosgiel, Brighton, Fairfield, Green Island and surrounding areas should be open for site discussion options.
Could it be that now Mosgiel is to be in the central ward at the next elections that some of the present councillors are now trying to buy votes ?
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{Link added – see photos of trees that will be removed from Memorial Gardens to make way for the proposed aquatic centre. -Eds}
“It starts off by telling us that the existing pool no longer meets the needs of the local community, but it does not tell us that all this can be upgraded for $2.5 million.” Sung to the tune “Carisbrook”.
“The upgrade of the present pool is not even an option.” 2015 update of the one-man touring show presented by Malcolm Farry.
There’s no business like snow business.
A version of my comment above with a link of the relevant page of the ‘.pdf’ of section three of the new LTP has been posted on the McP. website under the relevant article. Its appearance or otherwise in McP.’s comments and the level and nature of their journalistic follow up (if any) may be a useful indicator the level of GOB support for this project.
One thing that was also raised in this McP. posting was the possibility that Mosgiel’s share of the ‘fundraising’ for this may still happen, but via a compulsory targeted rate on the plebs (set after the next election?) rather than a voluntary donation of the same amount from the 99 Taieri fat cats (plus one Taieri tiger) that the MPT has been shouting about.
One questions the legality of this unapproved budget item. One also would question the mandate of the Council to raise a targeted rate within Mosgiel on the basis of evidence supplied so far by the MPT. The fundraising report is both worthless and irrelevant. The shower of submissions is exactly that. If we apply Farry stadium logic to them in reverse, the silent majority probably don’t want it if a hefty rate is the cost.
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{MPT meaning ‘Mosgiel Pool Trust’ – proper name: Taieri Community Facilities Trust (TCFT) aka ‘Pooling Together’. -Eds}
See new post: Dunedin ratepayers —Green Island best site for city pool users #Mosgielfarce
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Seems to me it’s time for ratepayers to take Dunedin City Council to the High Court.
It seems local politicians in Dunedin have a never ending list of hair-brained schemes. An expensive new pool for Mosgiel is the latest vote catcher in the lolly scramble. It appears the more expensive and sillier the project the better. These are sold as public amenities, but time after time have proven to be in reality whopping liabilities. These silly projects are merely mechanisms for political flag waving in the hope of getting re-elected. With few exceptions, politicians are by nature selfish self-centred beasts. Combine this with the fact that almost all of our DCC councillors have never before had a job that paid so much. This motivates them to seek re-election, whatever it takes. They are motivated by that, as opposed to what might be good for ratepayers.
We have seen an incessant push to embrace lunatic projects. Hence, Dunedin’s massive increase in debt by around $600M in just over a decade.
The template for poorly planned local schemes seems to have been set with the Chinese Garden. We had a gullible and typically vain mayor, combined with a rogue CEO. Huge egos drove this. We’ve had various combinations since that have allowed subsequent silly projects. The stadium has to be the granddaddy of them all, certainly in terms of cost, amenity value and scale of outrageously dishonest claims. The official figure for that is now $266M [all debt funded]. Who knows what it is? The DCC certainly doesn’t, although oddly our rates accounts still maintain we pay about as much for the library as the stadium! This is clearly extremely dishonest and probably illegal. This anomaly was pointed out by me to Mayor Cull 4 years ago, and several times since. Cull has knowingly allowed this deception to continue. The $100M or so of ratepayers’ new debt for the Settlers Museum and Town Hall upgrade are obvious examples of extremely poor decisions and lack of business acumen. When you add in all the extra examples of poor governance, the list gets very long indeed. Think Citifleet fraud, Delta Utilities failure going broke in Christchurch despite the earthquake rebuild, Delta failures in property investment at Jacks Point and Luggate, and now perhaps another $19M lost via Noble. What sort of arrogance motivated these fools to risk ratepayers’ money after the two preceding massive failures? The cycleways in terms of scale isn’t a huge loss. However, it is symptomatic of embracing a poorly thought out project, and they still managed to cock that up! Millions were wasted on Carisbrook and funding the ORFU. Then there is the ratepayer money wasted settling the mayor’s two cases of defamation. Then there’s the mud tanks, ………… and don’t forget Cull’s camel shackles where he ignored expert advice and stopped a public auction. Then he tried to obligate the vendor to buy them back! The list goes on and on. This really is a group of arrogant, incompetent and silly people. I’ve known primary school children more capable than this lot!
I thought that it might be best to bring everybody up to date with the official ‘fudge’ as to the $15 million allocated in the LTP for the Mosgiel Pool.
The LTP on p.166 as part of the ‘Ten Year Capital Expenditure Programme’ says that $410,000 will be spent in 2016/17 and $14,578,000 [in 2018/19] on the pool.
Now a reasonable person reviewing a section in the DCC LTP outlining a 10 year capital expenditure programme would expect this to report the actual projected capital expenditure of the DCC. Well apparently it doesn’t. Next to the ‘Mosgiel Pool’ is an asterisk (*). At the top of the page is the statement: ‘* indicates projects with full or partial external funding sources’.
As this report purports to be of the DCC’s own capital expenditure, a rational person would read this to mean that the project will receive full or partial funding ABOVE AND BEYOND THE PRECISELY SPECIFIED DCC CAPITAL EXPENDITURES NOTED IN THESE ACCOUNTS. In this case $14,988,000. The full projected cost of the pool is $15,000,000, which now maybe gives us at last a precise figure for the Mossiepoolites projected contribution to this project ($12,000). I think that we will be lucky to even see that.
To read it any other way creates an unacceptable ambiguity. The ‘offical line’ that has been communicated to us is that this $14,988,000 is the total projected expenditure/cost of the asset, and that the external contribution will be an (unspecified) part of this amount.
The problem with this is that if this contribution is not specified within the accounts, then the actual projected expenditure by the DCC cannot be established – thus making the DCC’s estimates of capital expenditure within this freshly minted LTP worthless, or more worthless than they are already if that’s possible. The $6 million handed over thus far has not been specified as a full and final amount, and there is clearly no intention that it will be, so this re-fudge to validate these worthless figures won’t work either if it presented as a justification of the ‘*’ and associated weasel phrases.
It should also be noted that this section is titled ‘capital expenditure’ – íf it includes the cost of items acquired with an input of capital from other parties, then the section should properly be titled ‘capital item acquisition’. To this extent these accounts seem to follow in the tradition of the colourful but spurious ‘what we own and what we owe’ adverto-accounts that DCTL used to place in McPravda before its fiscal wheels fell off.
With regard to the status of the pool, it appears that the DCC has got itself into the position that it has formally committed at least $6 million to this project. As I have not heard of any, I presume that this $6 million has no formal and enforceable conditions that make matching it by the Mossiepoolites a prerequisite for its release. The fact that $14.988 million appears in the DCC’s CAPITAL EXPENDITURE with no actual external funding level specified is by my reading of it tantamount to an underwrite of the remaining funding required to complete the project, including the $7.5 million promised by the Mossiepoolites.
It has been noted here previously that it is impossible to underwrite a fundraising initiative, as the act of underwriting by definition raises the funds. It would appear that this is what has happened to the Mossiepoolite community fundraising initiative. They can now put their feet up and enjoy the ride on the back of the ratepayer.
As to the ‘miners canary’ of putting a posting about these matters on the public (edited) comment site on Mc.Pravda, below one of its latest Mossiepoolite propaganda shots, the comment had (predictably) not appeared on this august and unbiased public forum by this morning – Nuff not said I suppose.
Jeff, this long litany of deceit, incompetence, egos, more incompetence and within the entire system, fraud, more incompetence and sprinkled with a liberal dose of stupidity has everything to do with those lacking governance skills or experience being elected to positions of power by the citizenry. When it becomes obvious to the Government that the elected mob in other local bodies cannot do their job, a Commissioner gets appointed. It is more than time that this happens in Dunedin.
For those who know, or care, this new spend up is deeply distressing. People choose to live in Mosgiel for various reasons and know that there are facilities they need to go to, in town, that are not available in Mosgiel. Why should going to the pool be any different? It is not as if Mosgiel is in the sticks with the fast motorway to get there.
A new pool is certainly a ‘nice to have’, but hardly a necessity. Especially given huge city debt and an increasingly nervous economic climate in NZ where income is tight.
If this is a perceived vote catcher for these councillors they need to think again. This kind of financial irresponsibility inevitably backfires with time.
Please please please do what is right, not what is perceived to be popular.
But Peter, “there are facilities they need to go to, in town, that are not available in Mosgiel. Why should going to the pool be any different?”
I understood there were already pools in Mosgiel. Not correct? Not adaptable for wider usage (eg school pools, an after-hours “sub-letting” arrangement with pool supervisors etc supplied by DCC?
Given that we are now under siege, money-lenders assembling at the city gates ready to invade and repossess the equivalent of what we owe – METAPHOR, for the benefit of anyone who hasn’t guessed – shouldn’t we be thinking along the make do and mend; spirit of the Blitz; adapt, repurpose and recycle lines that our Sustaina-Billies and -Belles prate about? Instead of, that is, hiring Sustaina-burblers and building special places (eg Vogel St) for people to do non-productive hanging about in while conspicuously not using cars, and leading the planet to salvation one worm-farm tutor at a time.
Peter, you can put an ‘*’ around that! Richard * Thomson’s understanding is that because it is ‘asterisked’ it doesn’t quite mean what it says. Sheesh! God help the hospital and all who sail in her.
And God help Audit NZ’s audit of the DCC books “going forward”.
I think everything is back the front!
I remember observing a Council meeting where a number of Councillors including Richard and Jinty expressed concern over the financial costs of a new Mosgiel pool and reluctantly agreed to $30,000 for a feasibility study.
Why even bother doing a feasibility study if you can’t afford the project?
If, as it is alleged, people who were so keen for the pool to happen could raise $7.5 million privately then surely they could have raised $30,000 for the feasibility study.
Michael Stedman, former pool trust chair, said on Ch39, the pool wouldn’t go ahead until the $7.5 million is raised.
It makes more sense to raise the private money first then look at what the Council can afford to contribute, then develop plans according to the available budget. Then it is up to the community to get behind it and make it happen. Probably would save much angst. Think Council would definitely get community buy-in doing it this way.
Afterall, this is what we do when buying a home. Look at what we can afford, save the deposit, raise the finance then find or build a home within the budget.
People continue to fall in the HOLE thinking DCC is THE BANK.
[effect being RATEPAYERS are THE BANK]
Rearranging the pillows on the Titanic.
“People continue to fall in the HOLE thinking DCC is THE BANK”
Don’t you really mean that: ‘People in the know continue to use the HOLE IN THE WALL thinking the DCC is THE BANK”
Yes :(
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Springfield+Monorail
Springfield Monorail
A public works project that is a huge waste of taxpayer money that turns out to be either a scam, a huge waste of money or both.
Comes from the Simpsons episode “Marge vs the Monorail” where Springfield spent all their money on a monorail only to have it fall apart on its maiden voyage.
The sky lift system Cleveland put in fell apart after a week. That thing was a real Springfield Monorail.
by Dark Lord Cthulhu August 12, 2013
CONSULTATION CLOSES THIS FRIDAY
### ODT Online Wed, 5 Aug 2015
Good public feedback over pool sites
By Chris Morris
The preferred site for Mosgiel’s new pool is proving to be a hot topic of debate. Dunedin City Council staff say more than 60 electronic submissions have been received so far, on top of an unknown number of written submissions delivered directly to the Civic Centre at Mosgiel’s Library. The public feedback had come in just the first week of consultation on the shortlist of four sites for the pool, released on July 24.
Read more
█ Feedback must be received by Friday, 7 August.
For more information and to fill in a questionnaire visit http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/mosgielpool-consultation or http://www.poolingtogether.org.nz. Hard copy information is also available at the Mosgiel Library and Service Centre
Contact Cr Jinty MacTavish, Chair, Mosgiel Aquatic Facility Steering Group on 027 277 5631.
█ Hands off Mosgiel Memorial Gardens