New Naenae pool could cost Hutt City Council as much as $40 million

Friday, 26 April 2019

The Hutt City Council is facing a potential bill of $40 million as businesses in Naenae struggle to deal with the closure of the earthquake-prone Naenae Pool.

The issue of what to do with the pool is becoming politicised with mayoral hopeful Cr Campbell Barry running a petition to save the pool. Locals are also accusing the council of being slow to react.

Kaela Melville predicts the closure of the pool will be devastating for local businesses.

Kaela Melville says the community has lost its 'heart' with the closure of the Naenae Pool.

'It is the heart of Naenae and it has stopped beating.'

**READ MORE:

The earthquake-prone Naenae Pool is closed indefinitely, as the council decides to rebuild or repair.

* Closure bad news for Naenae businesses

* Earthquake prone pool closed

Mayor Ray Wallace strongly rejects any talk the pool is closed permanently.

* Council kept earthquake prone Naenae pool open

* Naenae pool closes suddenly**

Locals hope the Naenae Post Office can become a temporary gym.

Melville runs a cafe opposite the pool and said up to 80 per cent of her customers come to Naenae because of the pool.

The school holidays were normally the busiest time of the year but she said there had been a massive drop off in patronage.

The pool closed two weeks ago after engineers found parts of the building were less than 20 per cent of the New Building Standard.

Built in 1956, the Olympic-sized pool was a regional attraction getting 450,000 visits a year.

The council has two options - repair or rebuild - but the bigger issue is what will it cost?

Council officers are using a 'ballpark figure of $40 million' for a new pool but have admitted it is little more than a guess.

That led to speculation the pool would never re-open and bleak predictions about the future of the shopping centre.

Barry said the the petition was about making sure the council was 'serious' about rebuilding or repairing the pool.

'Talk is cheap - council needs to put its money where its mouth is.'

The Naenae Residents' Association (NRA) wants a public meeting so locals can voice their opinion on what the council should do.

Mayor Ray Wallace rejected any suggestion that the pool was shut permanently but conceded it would be closed for an extended period of time.

He was annoyed at the suggestion the pool would not re-open and said some people had been left with that impression after signing the petition.

Councillors were 'fully committed' to re-opening of the facility and the most likely scenario was retaining the historic facade and building a new pool, he said.

Community services general manager Matt Reid said the council was moving quickly to find answers and he hoped to have something concrete to present at the annual plan meeting in May.

The figure of $40m related to the projected cost of a community pool complex in Napier and realistically anything the council did would be very expensive, he said.

The council had budgeted $9m for maintenance and $8m for a community hub but he said there would be a significant shortfall.

In the interim, the council was looking at short-term measures to support the local community, including a pop-up gym in one of the empty shops.

NRA member Emily Innes said she supported ideas such as a pop-up gym and cinema, and a temporary community hub attached to the library. But it would take some creative solutions to attract people to Naenae while the pool was closed.

Another member, Andy Mitchell, said the impact on the local community could not be overstated. 'I have said to people that it may as well have been a big earthquake.'

Businessman Ian Lang said he had been in Naenae since 1982 and he backed retailers who said 80 per cent of customers came via the pool.

'This is absolutely devastating for Naenae.'