Critics have described the trip as"a nonsense"and questioned why the councillors wouldn't look closer to home,at pools such as Andrew"Boy"Charlton Pool at Woolloomoolloo,Ultimo's Ian Thorpe Aquatic Centre and Cook + Phillip Park Pool on College Street.
However,Cr Gibson said the tour was a group trip and defended its cost as"a drop in the swimming pool"compared to the estimated $30 million cost to redevelop the prominent North Sydney site.
The council voted in July for Cr Gibson,Cr Drummond,general manager Ken Gouldthorp and several others involved with the project to tour Melbourne pools to"consider best practice"for the redesign.
The proposed $8000,two-day trip would take in pools at Glen Eira,Frankston,Greensborough and Hawthorn,a council report said.
But dissenting councillors proposed a rescission motion that would have scrapped the study tour. That rescission motion was defeated by a vote at an extraordinary meeting called by Cr Gibson for 9am last Monday.
Milson precinct chair and ex-councillor Jillian Christie,who spoke against the trip at the morning meeting,said there was"an awful lot"of information about interstate pools online.