This is article #6 in my 16 part series summarising Tauranga City Council strategy documents.
Here is my summary of the Tauranga City Council Aquatics Network Strategy 2012 – 2022 (30 pages 0.53Mb .pdf).
We are fortunate to have so much coastline and glorious beaches, but this doesn’t mean our swimming pools are any less dear to us.
Our rapidly growing population is causing us to reach the capacity of our swimming pool network faster, so we’ll need to:
- invest in extensions to current facilities,
- construct a new venue,
- or reach agreements with schools for use of their pools to meet growing demand
According to this document, funding for our Aquatic Network is 70% userpays and 30% via rates.
For each of the pool complexes, concerns raised by the public were discussed.
Baywave:
- Insufficient lane space during peak times (but at non-peak times there are large amounts of water space not fully utilised)
Greerton Pool
- Peak time lane space is also an issue
- Parking is difficult
Memorial Pool
- A large number of people value the open air aspect of Memorial Pool
- Some users suggested a retractable cover for all year round use
Otumoetai Pool
- This pool is of high importance to the local community
- Issues that need attention: changing room condition, improve water temperature, improve parking and accessibility
Bethlehem Pool next?
- Some respondents believed that a facility is needed in Bethlehem
- (In the meantime, the newly owned Club Aspire has 2 x 25m lanes)
There were some good ideas in this strategy, but again, I haven’t seen a lot of progress from the list of actions.
The document does talk about collaboration between schools with pools which would provide additional capacity for the city and avoid the huge capital investment of building new complexes, which is clever.
And very recently (22 Apr 2016), TECT and NZCT contributed funds to heat the Mount Maunganui College Pool all year round so that Omanu Swim Club can train there all year round.
That is a fantastic arrangement and I’d like to see more of these.
Your Thoughts?
What do you think of my notes? Anything that catches your eye? Have your say in the comment section below.