Armadale Aquatic Centre upgrades to proceed in 2017

The Federal Coalition Government has made good on its pre-election promise to contribute to the Armadale Aquatic Centre upgrade, this week confirming a $10 million grant towards the project.

Delivered through the Community Development Grants (CDG) program, the funding could see work on the $26 million heated indoor pool facility start as early as July 2017.

Armadale Mayor Henry Zelones OAM JP said he was delighted to announce that construction on the centre would now proceed next year.

“Our CEO advised that he received the long-awaited letter co-signed by the Federal Minister for Local Government Hon. Fiona Nash and WA Senator Linda Reynolds confirming the Federal Government’s commitment.” he said.

Mayor Zelones said he had campaigned for this project since the early 1990s and was pleased to see it was finally going to be a reality while he was Mayor.

“Federal Programs like the CDG are vital to delivering essential infrastructure in growth areas such as Armadale.

“This is the reason we are continually advocating on behalf of our community. Every dollar delivered to Armadale from a Federal or State budget is a dollar less we have to recover from ratepayers,” he said.

Armadale CEO Ray Tame said the real value of the announcement was that it will release some $16 million in loan borrowings from the City’s long term financial plan.

“There are other projects needed within the next decade that we have not been able to fund. This will somewhat ease the financial pressure on future ratepayers,” he said.

The Aquatic Centre project has been on the City’s Long Term Financial Plan for many years with over $4.5 million in preparatory work already completed.

The City had been seeking Federal funding for the project under the National Stronger Regions Fund program and in May this year, Council committed to the first $1 million of expenditure to complete design and documentation - ensuring the project was shovel-ready should funding be successful.

This announcement means that the construction of an all-year-round heated indoor aquatic centre, originally scheduled for 2019/20, should now be completed by the end of 2018.