Victoria Park Pool creche is an amazing facility — the potential saviour of parents from across the City of Sydney. However, I feel like it's at risk, and here's why.
This story starts a few years ago, with another
Victoria Park Pool facility — the cafe. Once upon a time, this cafe served city-quality food and coffee, and the patrons came in
droves. But the pool seemed unwilling to back this brave experiment. In the end, long queues and stress behind the counter ultimately made it impossible. Today, the cafe at Victoria Park Pool is just like any other — fine when the kids need an ice block or you're so tired that you can stomach shopping centre style coffee, but a lost opportunity to do so much more. A captive and cashed-up market has gone to waste. Today, we bring our own snacks, and stop for coffee at
Toby's Estate on the way home.
Then, there's the creche. For parents, this is a godsend. It has the potential to transform the quality of life of anyone who feels trapped at home by parenthood. When we
first began using this facility, it was incredibly popular. The waiting list was long. The timetable was managed like clockwork. Late cancellations were not tolerated. And this is what you'd expect from a service that has so much potential to affect so many lives.
But Victoria Park Pool and the City of Sydney have done nothing to promote the creche. I'd guess that most parents in the area don't know that it exists. And as a result, when we come we often find it woefully underutilitised. An incredible resource, going to waste.
It's got to the point that Victoria Park Pool appears to not want to really experiment with greatness. Does someone want to kill all demand for the creche so they can turn around and kill the creche, saying, "look, there's no demand".
C'mon Chippendale, use it or lose it! There's a community of parents at this pool, and there's always room for more. Get out of the house and into your togs. Your life and the city will be richer for it.