The above comes courtesy of "Sylvia's husband". Late last week Sylvia's husband expressed his opinion on the Facebook page of the Friends of Newcastle Ocean Baths (FONOB).

Was Sylvia's husband a CoN stooge? A Bath puppet?

In Newcastle you can agree and support many issues with like-minded souls but express an opinion that differs from those souls and you're a Kool-Aid drinking defector who probably tortures puppies. Why does it get so personal?

NOB is a treasured asset that CoN committed to renewing after the 2017 election. Attempts to attract the private sector to undertake the work in return for leases in the refurbished building were unsuccessful. The concept drawings for NOB had shown a modern box design sitting behind the baths' heritage-listed art deco facade, which must be retained.

Some in the community were mighty peeved at the concept drawings (even the lord mayor thought they were shockers) and a public meeting was arranged for a hot Saturday morning in November 2019. Both the lord mayor and a council engineer copped a heckling while attempting to clarify CoN's position on the redesign.

Although not an invited speaker - and she was reminded of that on numerous occasions, just as she was about the disdain of some in attendance about Supercars - she repeatedly tried to assure the crowd that nothing would happen without community consultation. Some in attendance were hostile and some were offensive. I guess that's passion, right?

And there was community consultation and community engagement opportunity around the NOB renewal. Stakeholder groups invited to be part of the community reference group (CRG) included, but were not limited to Friends of Newcastle Ocean Baths, Pirates swimming club, local businesses, Indigenous (Guraki/Awabakal), Coal River Working Party, Newcastle East Residents Group, and the Australian Institute of Architects.

For expressions of interest seeking broader community involvement, CoN aimed for broad representation from across the four wards and invited youth, people with disability, Indigenous representation, and pensioners.

Interested community members could apply. I was interested, applied and was accepted. I went to the meetings and participated. There were briefings from CoN engineers. I saw many design matters change at and between meetings. I saw robust debate. At the final meeting the lord mayor attended and moved around the tables listening to ideas, offering her support for some ideas, and asking participants questions.

FONOB has submitted an interim application order to Heritage NSW to stop the concreting of NOB's floor.

CoN has said it will abide by a decision to not concrete the floor, but given the contract has been determined, this will be a costly outcome.

Sarah Hamilton was another community member who contributed to the FONOB Facebook page:

"I have been following the sandy bottom debate for a while and I watched last night's council debate online. The speech from Greens councillor Charlotte McCabe has really changed my mind completely on this. The Greens fully support the concrete bottom and say that sand will keep washing in. I was a bit shocked, but if even the Greens are supporting this then I am comfortable with it... Thank you Charlotte for finally making sense of this whole thing."

Even the Greens! OMG.

The Review of Environmental Factors, which gives reasoning for the concrete slab, was made available to the public during the tender process. Both the integrity and expertise of CoN and other engineers has been attacked. As has Charlotte McCabe for daring to accept the advice and reasoning provided in the reports. Some nasty, personal stuff has been bandied about.

I must have drunk a keg of CoN Kool-Aid comrades, because I reckon banging on and on about the consultation process being flawed is more than a bit rich when it comes to the way CoN went about asking for, and incorporating, input into stage one of the renewal of NOB.

In Newcastle, when some don't get what they want in the public sphere, it provides opportunity to grandstand and to try as hard as hell to nuke the legitimacy of the consultation process. Yell inadequate, demand more reports and bleat for independent experts.

I hope the decision of NSW Heritage will quickly end the division around this project and the city can just get on with it, but then there's stage two waiting in the wings.

Strike me pink.

- Paul Scott contributes regular opinion columns to the pages of the Newcastle Herald