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To: Mayor Jack Boyd and Sutherland Shire Councillors
Fairer Pool Fees for Every Shire Family
Dear Mayor Boyd and Sutherland Shire Councillors,
We are asking Sutherland Shire Council to make its pools and leisure facilities genuinely accessible to all local families, including solo-parent, single-parent and lower-income families.
Council's current aquatic membership structure has a significant gap:
- Adult Aquatic Membership: $44.50/fortnight
- Family Aquatic Membership: $106/fortnight, covering either two adults and three children, or one adult and up to four children.
But:
There is no aquatic membership for a child under 16.
There is no child add-on.
There is no Adult + Child membership.
There is no child add-on.
There is no Adult + Child membership.
You cannot even purchase a concession or full-price Adult Aquatic Membership for a child, which would at least create a two-person membership option.
A parent wanting regular pool access with one child must therefore continually purchase casual or multi-visit entry for their child, or jump from a $44.50 Adult Membership to a $106 Family Membership designed to accommodate up to five people.
Council can fix this.
Practical options include:
- introducing a child aquatic membership or child add-on
- creating an Adult + Child membership
- introducing a one-adult family rate or Single Parent Family Membership
- introducing individual adult and child pricing, with the existing $106 Family Membership operating as a family cap
We aren't asking Council to adopt one particular model or price. We're asking our elected representatives to recognise the gap and fix it.
There should be an affordable pathway for one parent and one child to regularly use their local pool without having to purchase a membership covering up to five people.
We also ask Council to explore a local small business leisure membership.
Significantly cheaper access to Council leisure facilities is available through Fitness Passport, but access depends on working for a participating large employer. In practice, benefits like this are far more accessible to employees of large organisations than people working for local small and medium businesses.
A local business membership could give Sutherland Shire businesses an affordable way to offer their employees a meaningful health and wellbeing benefit, while encouraging greater use of Council facilities and keeping that investment in our local community.
The local small and medium business membership is a new proposal, and we recognise that this can appropriately be explored through Council's next Fees and Charges review.
But the child and family membership gap should not wait until 2027.
This is not a new issue. Residents have already raised concerns about family membership pricing, repeatedly and over multiple years, through the QR code feedback system at Council's Leisure Centres.
Council has now completed its 2026/27 Fees and Charges review and increased membership prices.
When Council was asked whether that previous feedback had been raised or considered during the review, no answer was provided.
Instead, we have been told the proposal can be considered in the next annual review.
That's not good enough.
Residents used the feedback process Council provided. They raised the issue before the latest review. They should not now have to wait another year simply for it to be formally considered.
We are asking Mayor Jack Boyd and Sutherland Shire Councillors to bring the child and family aquatic membership gap before Council during the current financial year and support a fairer option for local families.
The problem is clear.
There are several practical solutions. What is needed now is action.
There are several practical solutions. What is needed now is action.
These are our community facilities. Let's make sure our whole community can afford to use them.
Why is this important?
For many families, the local pool isn't a luxury. It's one of the few affordable places children can exercise, play, learn vital water-safety skills and be part of their community.
But under the current pricing:
One parent + one child: $112.50/fortnight
Adult membership + child 15-visit pass, swimming five days a week.
Adult membership + child 15-visit pass, swimming five days a week.
Two parents + three children: $106/fortnight
Unlimited access, seven days a week, for all five people.
Unlimited access, seven days a week, for all five people.
Two people, one of them a child, pay more than five and receive less access.
That's not equitable family pricing.
For solo and single parents, this matters. We don't pay half the rent, electricity, groceries or costs of raising children because there's only one adult. Those costs are often being met from one income instead of two.
When organised sport and extracurricular activities are increasingly unaffordable, Council facilities should be part of the solution, not another place our children are priced out of.
Parents shouldn't have to find a friend or relative to share a five-person membership just to afford regular swimming with their child.
There's a broader equity issue too.
Significantly cheaper access is available through Fitness Passport, but primarily to people working for participating employers. Local small and medium businesses are excluded from this scheme, and often can't offer the benefits and incentives of large organisations; their employees working in small local business shouldn't miss out because of where they work.
Significantly cheaper access is available through Fitness Passport, but primarily to people working for participating employers. Local small and medium businesses are excluded from this scheme, and often can't offer the benefits and incentives of large organisations; their employees working in small local business shouldn't miss out because of where they work.
These are community facilities.
Affordable access shouldn't depend on your family structure, whether you're raising children on one income or two, or the size of your employer.
Affordable access shouldn't depend on your family structure, whether you're raising children on one income or two, or the size of your employer.