Mr Sue believes the way council had managed the pool over the last six years had led to its downfall.

“The gates are shut out the front, fees to use the pool and the waterslides are too high and the opening hours are not conducive for people to use it,” he said.

“A public pool is supposed to be a very affordable public facility and I don’t think it is.

“I’m not saying council has hidden agendas but from a business perspective consolidating the two pools into one is a very easy way of cutting the overheads.

“But from my own observations the community hasn’t supported the pool by turning up and using it either.

“I remember going there on a 30-degree day in the school holidays and you could have fired a shotgun through there.

“If it’s not needed then we shouldn’t be wasting funding on it.”

Mr Sue took up management of the pool in 1984; he bought the waterslides and leased the business from council up until 2003.

Mr Sue said his business was so successful because he looked at the bigger picture and found other streams of income.

“I used to break down my week and look at how I could maximise the use of the facility,” he explained.

“We had a huge proportion of swimming carnivals and developed our own learn-to-swim programs for the schools.

“We had school sport, PE lessons, end-of-year break-up days.

“We had the largest squad and learn-to-swim classes in the area.”

At that time Mr Sue had big plans to turn the Shoalhaven into a high-performance region for swimming, but said council did not support his vision.

His reign began to decline when council started to take back control of the various pools in the Shoalhaven.

“Here I was running their pool, under their rules and in opposition to them,” he said.

“Now it’s a two-way street, the council hasn’t operated the pool to the betterment of the community and it’s disappointing to drive past there and never see anyone using it.”