Even if the council, as suggested, was to be a partner, the placement of this facility is just not feasible for the youth of Cessnock as many children from around, let’s say seven years old to car licensing age, that currently use the pool where it is, often get there via bicycle or walking.

Yet the christian college would be expecting these young people to walk or ride the five kilometres on one of our most dangerous roads to get there.

The pool should be no more than one kilometre from the central area of town. We might as well just use the Kurri Kurri pool than have to go to the christian college.

The school obviously wants a pool for their own purposes and wants either a private entity or our council rates to pay for half of it.

After all the current work and our rates that have already been spent on the current proposals for an aquatic facility, why would we want to just let these costs go down the gurgler to fund something that will not be owned by us.

Regarding the road upgrade on John Renshaw Drive near Avery's Lane at Buchanan (‘Upgrade complete’, The Advertiser, July 12, page 2), what a waste of taxpayers money!

The last major accident there was more than 10 years ago. Nothing was done to improve safety at that time!

Now, with the Hunter Expressway having eased the amount of traffic between Buchanan and Kurri Kurri, the state government have decided to spend $1.17 million on an upgrade.

I believe that Cessnock Council should have requested that the money be used on other state roads in the area that need repairs.

$1.17 million, that's an awful lot of money!