Latest news with #swimmingPools
BBC News
22-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Move to introduce all island leisure rate rejected
A bid to introduce a leisure rate to replace local authority contributions to regional swimming pool costs has been thrown move would have seen the additional funds ring-fenced and allocated to the island's four local facilities and the National Sports Centre (NSC).Lawrie Hooper MHK had said the measure, which would have seen changes to the rates in Douglas, Onchan and Braddan, would raise £250,000 and make the system "more equitable".But Treasury Minister Alex Allinson said "full rate reform" would instead provide a "fair, modern and equitable way of funding community services and facilities". An all-island tax would "not solve the problem of how our regional swimming pools are funded, how they are managed, and their operations co-ordinated", he said. 'Lessening the burden' Hooper argued it was about "making things a little bit fairer and a little bit better" as rate reform would not happen all at once. Although the regional rates for the pools did not raise a lot of money in comparison to the total running costs of the facilities, the measure would have the effect of "lessening the burden" on the Department for Education, Sport and Culture the proposal, Jason Moorhouse MHK said it would resolve the issue of "imbalance" in the rating system, which saw some ratepayers pay for the pools, but not all, and would "ensure uniform contributions".But Chris Thomas MHK said the only reason that the facilities were paid for by rates was so that local authorities had control of the pools. He said introducing a fee in the east of the island could lead to the NSC being run by a local authority. Similarly, Cabinet Office Minister David Ashford said the measure would "centralise" the funding to the government and "remove that power from the local level".In a vote in Tynwald the measure was rejected by the politicians. Additional reporting by the Local Democracy Reporting Service. Read more stories from the Isle of Man on the BBC, watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer and follow BBC Isle of Man on Facebook and X.
ABC News
21-05-2025
- ABC News
Ex-AFL player Nick Stevens accused of $170k deception over undelivered pools
Former Carlton and Port Adelaide player Nick Stevens has been accused of deceptively charging families tens of thousands of dollars for pools they never received. The 45-year-old is facing 18 fraud-related charges, including obtaining a financial advantage through deception, after allegedly accepting $170,000 from six families to deliver and install swimming pools at properties in the Mildura region. Prosecutor Toni Stokes told the County Court of Victoria in Melbourne the families were left with either "[not permitted] pools, giant holes in their backyards, or nothing at all". Mr Stevens has pleaded not guilty to all charges. On Wednesday, Mildura Rural City Council municipal building surveyor Mark Yanstes told the court Mr Stevens called the council in January 2018 to ask if he needed a permit to install swimming pools, after accepting money from several clients. The court heard Mr Yantses told him: "Every pool in Victoria needs a building permit." The court heard the council's building surveyors came across several jobs in 2017 and 2018 where home owners had signed an application for building permits, believing they had done the right thing and followed council rules. It was alleged these applications for building permits were linked to a company run by a private building surveyor, but that the surveyor had not received the paperwork before the jobs began. Deputy municipal building surveyor Richard Rowe told the court the council was forced to shut down several of Mr Stevens's work sites. He said pool permits could not be issued retrospectively, so families had to either demolish the pools or leave them as-is, even if they were half-finished. The court heard that at least one family told Mr Stevens to have their pool removed. Mildura man Ben Knight told the court he paid Mr Stevens more than $30,000 for a pool he never got. He said Mr Stevens gave a plethora of excuses for why he could not install the pool, including bad weather. "Every week there was another delay … until late in January when it all finished up," Mr Knight told the court. "One reason was it had rained too much, it was too wet; one was that the truck that delivers the pool had broken down; there was ongoing legal battles with Leisure Pools. "Just about anything you could think of." Mr Knight told the court Mr Stevens gave him a $10,000 refund in February 2018. "I did text Nick after that and asked for the rest of the outstanding balance … there was no answer, so I knew the writing was on the wall," he said. In her opening argument, Ms Stokes told the court Mr Stevens was running a landscaping business in the Mildura area at the time of the alleged offending in 2017 and 2018. She said Mr Stevens was in a dealership agreement with a company called Leisure Pools. The deal was for Leisure Pools to supply the pools, and Mr Stevens was meant to install them, the court heard. In his opening address, defence barrister Jim Stavris told the jury it would "in some ways be a technical case", urging them to pay attention to the chronology and dates in the evidence from witnesses in the trial. The trial before Judge Fran Dalziel continues.
