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Detailed pool plan briefing

Staff ReporterWestern Suburbs Weekly

Pool proponent Tom Locke said the drawings were three-dimensional, architectural views that breathed new life into what was previously just a technical sketch.

Mr Locke and other Cottesloe Surf Life Saving Club members propose a University of WA-tested J-shaped rock wall on the north side of the groyne to provide an eight-lane, sand bottom enclosure flushed by waves and costing about $3 million.

Distance swimmers, water polo players, the elderly, disabled, children and mothers would swim safely from swells, rips and shark attack in the pool, progress of which is being followed by proponents of similar projects in Albany, Fremantle, Scarborough, Quinns Rock and Geraldton .

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Computer analysis of the Cottesloe design by the University of WA Centre for Water Research indicates that a steep drop-off would lessen at the current edge of Cottesloe Beach and an improved surf break may appear at the tip of the groyne.

However, Mr Locke does expect some local opposition to the pool and concern about its maintenance.

‘The design means it may need a once in a year ‘tidy up’, but fundamentally, outside of an extreme cyclonic event, it’s a low to no-maintenance facility,’ Mr Locke said.

Disabled swimmers would use a ramp to get into the sea, possibly using two beach access wheelchairs recently bought by Cottesloe Council.

‘It would finally give us complete access to the ocean, because dogs seem to have better access to beaches than people in wheelchairs right now,’ wheelchair user and Indian Ocean Research Group associate senior researcher Hilary Rumley said.

Cottesloe Mayor Jo Dawkins said the briefing was organised so the public would be fully informed about the sea pool before the proposal became a development application.

‘The last time when a beach pool proposal went to public comment it was knocked on the head,’ Mrs Dawkins said.

The briefing is at Cottesloe Civic Centre, Broome Street from 5 to 6pm on Thursday, May 1.