“The only reason Newcastle City Council is not leasing out Beresfield pool is so they can close it at the end of next season,” Cr Dunn said yesterday. 

He was speaking after new designs were released of Lake Macquarie City Council leisure centres plans for Charlestown and Swansea.

“While that council and others are investing millions of dollars in their public pools, Newcastle City Council is doing the complete opposite,” Cr Dunn said.

“Council is putting our public pools in the hands of private operators and threatening the very existence of pools such as Beresfield.

“Residents of Beresfield deserve much better.”

He believed savings to be made from privatising pools was minimal at best and it placed the quality of service and safety of pool users at significant risk.

Cr Dunn accused council of doing nothing to make its pools more viable or sustainable.

“I will be calling on council to work with the local community in Beresfield and Tarro to make their pool more attractive to users and increase patronage,” he said.

A council spokesman said: “In making changes to the management of the swimming centres in Newcastle, council staff are following a resolution of the elected council.

“In that resolution, made on July 22, council awarded the tender for the ongoing operation of Newcastle’s four inland swimming centres to Lane 4 Aquatics, based in Queensland.

“Council also resolved to continue operations at Beresfield Swimming Centre and review attendance figures at the end of this season to determine if ongoing operations are warranted,” the spokesman said.

“Lake Macquarie [City] Council has announced improvements to their swimming centres and they have received a substantial multi-year rate increase to pay for those improvements.”