'Confidentiality' shrouds plans for future of ageing Adelaide Aquatic Centre

The future of the ageing Adelaide Aquatic Centre and its potential redevelopment as a new base for the Adelaide Football Club remains shrouded in secrecy.

Facing significant costs in upgrading the Adelaide Aquatic Centre, which opened in 1969, Adelaide City Council has welcomed the Crows plans to establish a new training and administration complex on site, giving the AFL club permission to start designing concept plans for the facility in June.

However, after a secret briefing by the Crows to the Council on their vision for a new base in the north parklands on Monday evening, City of Adelaide Lord Mayor Sandy Verschoor told the Adelaide Advertiser that the proposal has a "long way to go".

With discussions surrounding the new $65 million being conducted in secret, there is no indication of the proposal's components and if a publicly accessible aquatic centre will be part of a future facility.

With the Council also having commissioned a study to look into the current and future demands for aquatic and recreational services over the next 20 years, Lord Mayor Verschoor went on to state that the concept plans responded to the Council’s “guiding principles and community needs”.

Those principles are understood to cover areas including value for money and community benefit.

Further discussions of the proposal at Council meeting last night saw Councillors bound to confidentiality by their own unsolicited bid process. During that time, the maintenance costs for the now 50 year old facility have risen dramatically.

Ratepayers and residents will not be consulted until after the Council receives a formal proposal from the Crows, with a “community engagement” strategy yet to be devised and a needs analysis assessing the current usage of the Adelaide Aquatic Centre still underway.

As of last night, City Council Chief Executive Mark Goldstone looked to prevent any release of information about the Crows’ plans, telling Councillors before last night’s public meeting that details of the proposal remained confidential.

As reported by InDaily, Goldstone advised “I just want to be sure that you don’t inadvertently divulge any information that’s been presented previously.

“I recognise there’s been a degree of impatience that we’re not providing information to our community.

“I must say, we’re getting much closer to being able to provide that information and also to explain to the community the process and the timeframes of that.

“We’re now at a point where the Adelaide Football Club can advance their concept mapping or their planning and I anticipate that they will lodge their concept plans in the very near future.”

The Council introduced its unsolicited bid process over a year ago, with the Crows’ proposal the first to be processed under the rules.

Once South Australia's major elite aquatic facility, since the opening of the State Aquatic Centre in Marion in 2011, the Centre has evolved from a training and competition venue into a predominantly recreational facility.