Councillors raise concerns about pool fate as grand plan for Murray River parks in Albury outlined

The council's landscapes service leader David Costello presented a series of images to a briefing on Monday night on the draft Murray River Experience master plan.

The final draft is expected to be presented to council next March and then be distributed for public feedback in the following month.

Projects highlighted on Monday night included a splash park near the Oddies Creek playground, Noreuil Park visitors' centre, relocation of changerooms at Albury Sportsground and new pedestrian bridge across the Murray River.

The span would be at the end of a promenade labelled the "grand diagonal", a pathway linking Dean Street to the river via the botanic gardens and then behind the sportsground's grandstand.

It is also proposed the concrete lining of Bungambrawatha Creek be removed and it returned to a natural state as it enters the river.

Mr Costello said the grand diagonal and creek work would require land to be taken from the aquatic centre or it to be decommissioned.

Councillor Alice Glachan said she had "significant concerns" the proposal failed to address what would happen to the pool.

"Swimming pools here in our community are (a) very emotional point and I think if we're presenting this to our community we need to be explaining what is going to happen with that pool and if it is going somewhere, where it's going et cetera," she said.

"We just can't tell our community that the pool at some stage is not going to be there."

Councillor Henk van de Ven noted the swimming centre was absent from a "lot of the displays".

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"That's the piece of the puzzle that needs to be resolved before we go too much further with this particular plan," he said.

"A lot of the stuff that is aspirational can't be done until such time as a decision is made on the swim centre."

Concerns were raised about flood impacts through the changes to the creek and the impact of high waters on projects.

The council's planning and infrastructure chief Brad Ferris said there would be a focus on flooding fallout and it was being discussed with river water managers.

"Moving into design of some of these elements certainly that will be at the forefront of our considerations," Mr Ferris said.

"We don't want to be investing money into this precinct to find that every couple of years we're having a minor flood...(and) we then have damage to assets that we've invested in and have to reinvest."

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