Is this the end for the Khandallah Pool?

Tuesday, 13 February 2024

The Khandallah Pool is already in its final month, if the council’s latest proposal to close it down goes ahead.

The Wellington City Council is looking to whisk dollars away from capital projects in order to fund a massive $1.7 billion investment in water infrastructure over the next few years.

The 99-year-old Khandallah Pool, with an upgrade cost estimated at $11.7 million and operating costs which far exceed the fees paid by users, is one of the facilities which could close its doors under the council’s proposal.

This is the third proposal in recent years to shut down the pool, the most recent of which was voted down only three months ago.

The 30m outdoor pool is known for its unheated water, hosting the annual Dogs ‘n’ Togs event and its scenic setting next to Khandallah Park and Mt Kaukau. It only opens for three months in the summer.

In its heyday it saw peak attendance of 45,000 people in hot summers. But now the pool, opened in 1925, is old, run-down and attendance has dropped consistently since 2000.

These days around 10,000 attend the pool during the three month season, about half as many as the heated Thorndon Pool within the same time frame.

The cost of the upgrade, which involves raising the pool by 1.8m to avoid flooding, breaks down to $62,000 per square metre of pool space. That cost is three times as much as recent, indoor pool developments in Stratford and Hawke’s Bay – even though indoor pools tend to be more expensive.

Rebecca Matthews, chair of the committee and a local ward councillor, was still undecided about which way she would vote on the pool’s future, but noted that expenditure in the realm of millions of dollars was difficult to justify as the council looks to make cuts.

“Nobody gets into politics to close things down. The community love the pool, it’s very difficult,” she said.

She was “vehemently opposed” to cutting hours for important facilities like pools and libraries, especially if Khandallah was closed down.

Local councillor Diane Calvert has campaigned for the pool for years, but over the weekend acknowledged $11.7m was probably too much. But she thought the design put forward by council staff was over-engineered and the community would be happy with a simpler option.

Ray Chung, also a ward councillor, agreed. He said the council should upgrade the earthquake prone changing rooms but did not need to spend $11.7m to keep the pool in operation.

It would be fine to continue as it was, despite the flooding and leaking issues, he believed.

He questioned why the pool was targeted when there were larger spending items, like introducing an organic food collection and wheelie bins across the city.

“When you look at this whole list of things the council wants to cut, they’re all little things. Nobody’s looking at the big items that are going to cost us millions.”

All pools are expensive, with a ratepayer subsidy of $22 per swim across all the council’s pools – which is why the council is eyeing them up for budget cuts.

At Khandallah, the subsidy is currently $25 per swim. It would more than double, to between $60 and $80 per swim depending on patronage numbers if the upgrade went ahead.

The closure of Khandallah Pool was first proposed in 2011 to keep rates down, but was taken off the table after fierce community opposition.