Jets get behind council swim club, City of Orange still opposed

Councillors resolved a year ago to form the club, however Swimming NSW asked for either Jets or the City of Orange Swim Club to dissolve so there were not three accredited swimming clubs at the venue. 

Staff reported the Jets and the Orange District Swim Group supported a council-run club and recommended to proceed with establishing the new club.

With the council-run club to have control over lane allocations, the City of Orange Swim Club would be relegated to category three, meaning they would not be given priority access to lanes.

Jets president Michael Thornhill said the club was prepared to dissolve. 

“Our members believe this will be in the best interests of for the swimming public of Orange, particularly the kids in the sport now and the years to come,” he said.

However, City of Orange’s Tanya Chapman said her club did not have enough information on the intended structure of the new body and could not consider the change without those details. 

“I’ve raised questions and there have not been answers,” she said. 

She said the club was happy with a 50-50 land allocation and she was unaware of any disagreement with Jets.

Related coverage: Clubs jostle for pool lanes

”Nothing’s going to change because the allocations in winter are going to be the same,” she said. 

“If the numbers do grow, will there be more lanes available?”

Asked about the structure of the operation, community services director Scott Maunder said it should be up to the club to decide how it wanted to run.

“There’s an opportunity for everyone to get involved in how the club is established,” he said. 

Mayor Reg Kidd said it was essential to form one club.

“The reason for that being years and years of discontent, let’s put it that way,” he said. 

“All we had coming back was there was friction and it’s no good saying there wasn’t because there was.

“This is a way that we win – I don’t want to go back [and] go through all the arguments about who owns what, we’ve done that so many times.”

Councillor Glenn Taylor said the issue came down to Orange Aquatic Centre not having enough lanes for two clubs and the report was the culmination of “infinite consultation”. 

“We can’t build another pool so we’ve got to work with what we’ve got,” he said. 

“There will always be people who aren’t happy about the model we present, but this is for the good of the entire swimming community.”

Councillors again resolved to form the club, but advertise for a voluntary head coach to enable anyone to apply.