Maitland councillors voted on Tuesday night to open up the tender process for Maitland Aquatic Centre and East Maitland Aquatic Centre.

Three private companies will be invited to submit business cases on how they would run the facilities and council will prepare its own proposal to throw into the mix before the January deadline.

But United Services Union ­organiser Andrew Ryals, a representative of aquatic centre staff, said ­privatisation of the pools would place a question mark over safety, entry fees and general standards at the facilities.

“My first reaction is disappointment,” he said.

“This whole process has been that this is really a benchmarking exercise, but tendering blows that completely out of the water.

“Going to tender means you’re ­prepared to enter a contract.

“The current management has an immaculate safety record. You put that in jeopardy. When you’re a business, you’re more likely to cut corners to save money.”

While he could not name specific instances where entry fees had increased because of the introduction of private management at public pools, Mr Ryals said there was a risk that prices would rise if the facilities were privatised.

Newcastle City Council leased four of its five public pools last year.

Entry fees fell after the ­privatisation, despite fears the lease would make it more expensive.

Maitland council decided to review management of the aquatic centres before the opening of the city’s new year-long heated pool, according to a staff report.

“Whilst untested, the review identified that significant cost savings and improved expertise might be achieved through the adoption of an outsourced management model,” the report noted. 

“To assess the validity of the findings council resolved to benchmark its current in-house management model with possible outsourced models to ensure that council continues with its community service obligations in the most fiscally responsible way.”