$2.2m green light for Warrnambool's Lake Pertobe car park and water play park

A $1.77 million tender was awarded for a new play space and water play area at Monday's ordinary council meeting, as well as a $450,000 contract to upgrade the main car park.

Cr Debbie Arnott said the tendered amount for the car park had come in under budget while Cr Ben Blain pointed out that it had been awarded to a local contractor.

"It's good to see the money staying in our community," he said.

The upgrade to the main car park will include resurfacing works to make it slightly wider to fit in 112 parking spaces.

Cr Blain said the upgrade to the play space was a really exciting project for Warrnambool.

"It's going to be a huge drawcard to the region," Cr Blain said.

"Hopefully it'll be finished by the end of the year. Even if contractors think they're struggling to get supplies at the moment, hopefully it will get easier.

"It's really exciting new infrastructure for the community."

Cr Max Taylor said the improvement of the Lake Pertobe car park and play area would be a great asset to the Warrnambool foreshore.

He said it would benefit not just holidaymakers but the whole community.

Mayor Vicki Jellie said the Federal Government's Building Better Region's funding for the new playground was matched dollar for dollar by the city council.

"It's great to get those funds into the region," she said.

"It's a fabulous space as we all know and it's great for tourism."

Cr Richard Ziegeler said the project had been in the planning well before the new council was elected.

"It's nice to see it's come to the tender stage and it will happen," he said.

Cr Ziegeler suggested that his fellow councillors looked at similar sorts of projects for the city's poorer cousins in places like Allansford and Dennington to have "this kind of concentrated financial spending".

Cr Jellie said she also agreed with Cr Ziegeler that the council now needed to look at investing in other areas of the city.

The decisions to award the two contracts were passed unanimously.

Plans for a major revamp of Lake Pertobe were first unveiled in December 2019 and also include plans to replace the McGennans car park toilets, but the council is yet to decide to relocate them closer to the beach or rebuild them where they are.

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