When Councillor Peter Cox handed over the mayor’s navy blue robe this week, he reflected on the good, the bad and the ugly of his year in the city’s highest office. 

And though it officially came to an end Tuesday night, Cr Cox’s biggest regret of his tenure as mayor will be played out this week. 

“The most disappointing: the decision to demolish the Kangaroo Flat Leisure Centre,” Cr Cox told the audience. 

That process is set to begin this week as contractors start what is expected to be a three-week process of tearing down the building to make way for a $30 million aquatic centre. 

Cr Cox put his name to a list of 20 prominent citizens opposed to the destruction of the $4 million leisure centre in a full page advertisement in this paper on Tuesday – a list which also included another five former mayors. 

In June, Cr Cox voted against the proposal to build a 51.5m pool and remove the Kangaroo Flat Leisure Centre – but it was endorsed by the City of Greater Bendigo with councillors voting in  five in favour to four against. 

Conversely, the new aquatic centre was the first specific project mentioned by the new mayor, Cr Rod Fyffe, in his maiden speech at Town Hall on Tuesday. Cr Fyffe voted for the removal of the lesiure centre in June. 

“Our top priority as councillors must be to deliver the projects and strategies we identified three years ago, when we first sat down together to develop a council plan,” he said.

“Those that we established then included the construction of the Greater Bendigo Indoor Aquatic Leisure and Wellbeing Centre, the Bendigo Airport redevelopment and the Bendigo Stadium expansion.”