Tyler Redway
DESPITE claims that Wulanda Recreation and Convention Centre was fully open for business, it was brought to the attention of the City of Mount Gambier elected members last week that the crèche will not be open until next month.
The topic was brought up as a question without notice from Cr Max Bruins on behalf of Cr Paul Jenner during this month’s council meeting.
Cr Bruins asked whether the crèche was fully operational.
City and Community Growth general manager Sue La Greca said it was not open, as Belgravia, the business managing the site, was still working to determine how they could best service clients.
“The crèche at Wulanda isn’t operating yet, Belgravia has been working on monitoring and establishing the usage patterns at the swimming pool, aquatics, gym and fitness classes, etc, so that they can align the opening hours of the crèche with the opening hours of the rest of the centre,” she said.
Elected member were provided verbal updates of Wulanda at each council meeting up to March 21, but there was no mention of the creche in those updates.
Now, the centre will finally see the crèche open, months after the centre’s official public opening.
The child-minding service is set to open on June 13, although this date was not known at the time of the council meeting.
Wulanda manager Jason Taylor said the focus had been on opening the centre in a staged way to ensure all core activities were operational before moving onto the “ancillary services”.
“It has also been a high priority to ensure we find the right people with appropriate skills to operate the child-minding service,” Mr Taylor said.
“This service will no doubt be welcomed by many of our members and casual visitors, enabling them to have peace of mind that their children are well looked after while they use our amazing facilities.”