Push for new pools in south | Canterbury News | Local News in Canterbury

Two community boards have joined forces to push the case for aquatic facilities in the east of Christchurch and to make sure their suburbs are not overlooked in a city council aquatic facilities strategy review.

The Hagley-Ferrymead and Burwood-Pegasus Community Boards lost the pools in their suburbs in the earthquakes.

They are jointly asking council CEO Tony Marryatt for replacements, and for the two boards to be included in pre-draft consultation on aquatic facilities.

The unusual joint approach by the two boards seems to indicate fears that they could be left out of the loop when staff review the future of Christchurch's aquatic facilities.

The boards want an event-sized aquatic facility (suitable for national and international meetings) retained for Burwood-Pegasus after the loss of the Queen Elizabeth II Park pool and a community aquatic centre for Hagley-Ferrymead.

Push for pools

Burwood Pegasus chairwoman Linda Stewart said her ward had no pools whatsoever now.

"Our people are desperate to have places to swim," she said.

"It is the No.1 topic for the by-election."

After the earthquakes the ward had to reinvent itself and have a point of difference, and she was pushing for it to become the "aquatic ward" and a centre for outdoor recreation, she said.

It's an issue at the heart for Ms Stewart - she's been a QE2 pool user since it was handed over to the community.

"I taught my children to swim there before they started school, and Friday nights were family nights where we went to the pool to swim," she said.

Hagley-Ferrymead chairman Bob Todd, who has been a strong advocate for an aquatic centre in his ward for a long time, said his board still supported such a project.

His board also wanted to be involved in the aquatic facility strategy when it was reviewed.

"We'd like to have some input before the process is signed off, and both boards deem it desirable to have input from the community via the community boards.

"I'm not sure where the aquatic facility strategy is at present, but it is supposed to be up and under way this year."

Both boards wanted to be able to make a contribution to it, he said.

Hagley-Ferrymead had no pools other than AquaGym, and Mr Todd said this was at a time when there was concern about the number of drownings in New Zealand and the number of young people who couldn't swim the length of a pool.

The boards have also discussed issues with school swimming pools.

Ms Stewart said both the Central New Brighton and North New Brighton Schools had pools that were damaged in the quake, and Mr Todd sees potential for portable pools for schools.

Mr Marryatt was not available for comment before the deadlines for The Observer.