Wollongong residents should not expect all public pools and outdoor equipment to be reopened by this weekend despite a change in some NSW COVID-19 restrictions, Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery has warned.
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On Tuesday, Cr Bradbery said councils had not yet received advice on how to apply the new relaxed restrictions to public places under their control and warned there were "a lot of logistical problems" to ensure the community remains safe.
For instance, he said the state was yet to make it clear how outdoor pools - which are allowed to reopen "with restrictions" from Friday - should operate. Some reports indicated the rules could include no change rooms and a cap of 10 people using the pool at a time.
"We are still waiting for that detail to be announced," he said, which meant the reopening of the Continental, Port Kembla, Corrimal, Dapto and Unanderra pools remained up in the air.
"We don't know if we're allowing 10 or 20 people into the pool, how we'll keep them a safe distance apart, who is supervising that, how many people can be in each lane, and what about swim clubs?
"This is really problematic because there is no clarity about how this will operate, and we've got to ramp up our operations and that will take possibly 48 hours to get it all up to speed.
"We could have to put in barriers, monitoring - so I would just say don't expect things to be open this weekend."
He said reopening playgrounds could be even more complex, noting the council was responsible for more than 150 children's parks, as well as fitness equipment.
"Who is responsible for keeping them clean and monitoring them for how many people are using them?" Cr Bradbery said.
"My advice is that if you go to a playground and it is open, you should take your own hygiene equipment and practice hand sanitation and maintain strict distancing."
"This reopening is very problematic, and what I've seen so far of people's behaviour is that people aren't practising social distancing. People are going to have to be very careful."
He said the council would quickly move to close pools and playgrounds if people did not comply with social distancing rules.
Like Cr Bradbery, Shellharbour Mayor Marianne Saliba said her council was in the dark about exactly how it would be required to reopen outdoor pools and play and fitness equipment.
"I think it's great people will be able to participate in these activities. We've all got a bit of cabin fever and people do need ways to get outside with their families," she said.
"But we need to be very vigilant to make sure we don't have a second wave."
She said the council was preparing to reopen the Oak Flats 25-metre heated pool and Beverly Whitfield pool at Shellharbour, but was not clear on what the "restrictions" referred to in the NSW Government advice would mean.
"If these restrictions need more staff, for example if it needs to be supervised, then that would be a big cost to council and I would be asking the state government to stump up for that," Cr Saliba said.
She said policing social distancing and hygiene at playgrounds or on outdoor fitness equipment would be extremely difficult, and said it would be up to individuals to make sure they stayed safe.
"Hypothetically, perhaps we will be asking people to bring their own towels to fitness equipment and wipe them down, but that's not going to be possible at playgrounds,"
"Will little children wait until someone stops using the slide? And even with restrictions in place, we've seen parents lifting kids over the barriers and allowing them to play on the equipment."
"We don't generally clean our playgrounds for hygiene, so that would be a significant cost if we had to start doing that".
Both Wollongong and Shellharbour councils have completed new playgrounds during the coronavirus shut down, but have held off promoting their completion due to fears they may become crowded with children.
Cr Saliba said there would need to be a strong sense of personal responsibility as restrictions eased.
"I would just say to people to be sensible about their approach to these things," she said.
"Make sure that social distancing is maintained and make sure that they are considering the health of yourselves and your children.
"We don't do this by nature, as Australians, to be overly concerned about stuff. The 'she'll be right mate' attitude is a part of our make up, but if we use that attitude, we probably won't be right."