Ed, In almost 40 years as a professional asset manager, it never fails to amaze me that people without the appropriate formal qualifications and no relevant experience persist on making such un-informed and ridiculous public statements as this one from one of our Councillors “If pools have not received the level of maintenance that they require its not through neglect, its through lack of funds. Keep in mind most of the pools are nearing or at the end of their life cycle, so it would be remiss of anyone to think that any level of maintenance would have them in tip top condition.” This is simply nonsense. The determination of “life cycle” is a direct function of the standard of construction, the level of condition monitoring, AND the quality of the maintenance carried out. I would not recommend anyone even consider buying a second hand car from this Councillor. He apparently doesn’t check the oil, coolant, or tyre pressures and hasn’t had it serviced regularly for some time. The even more worrying aspect of this kind of stupidity is that the opinion seems to have been based on information provided by a Council Executive. None of the Executive have any idea of the how to scientifically make these kind of determinations, and these same people are preparing the Position Description for the soon to be appointed Asset Co-ordinator. Valley residents who use the Yamba, Maclean and Ulmarra swimming pools have every reason to be alarmed. Ian Saunders, Maclean