Napier councillors are divided on whether the city's ageing and outdated pool should be closed.
Residents have long been dissatisfied with the city's main pool, the Napier Aquatic Centre in the suburb of Onekawa, telling the council it is "old" and "run-down".
Mould in the walls is one of the biggest health and safety concerns at the Napier Aquatic Centre. (File image) Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
At a meeting of the Sustainable Napier council committee today, councillors discussed if they should support spending $8.6 million over three years for health and safety and continuity capital improvements to the pool
Mould in the walls was one of the biggest health and safety concerns.
Deputy mayor Annette Brosnan suggested closure should be on the table.
"I acknowledge that closing the aquatic facility is not a position any of us would like to be in," she said.
"But we knew, and we've known for a long time that the asset needs considerable investment and it's the first time we've seen these numbers.
"We're asking the community to pay an extra $20 per household a year and another compounded 1.4 percent interest in rate rises to essentially put lipstick on Onekawa.
"At the end of that day, the money, after we spend it, we will still have a poor condition, failing asset that could be closed at any point, through critical plant and asset failure. It's long overdue to be replaced.
"That money would limp us through for up to 10 years."
Napier Mayor Kirsten Wise. Photo: RNZ / Dom Thomas
But Mayor Kirsten Wise said it was a "vital asset and service" for the community.
"I would not be comfortable at all closing without some degree of community consultation," she said.
"I think it's quite different to closing our civic building and library, which was closed due to risk of life. I certainly do not see from the information provided by staff that there's any risk on life in our aquatic centre at the moment, it's simply that it's an ageing facility."
"It is a lot of money for something that we could be possibly replacing within a few years," councillor Maxine Boag said.
"However, when I see we have an average of 180,000 visits to the current facility per year, and it is a facility that is essential to the wellbeing to many of our citizens, leaving them without a pool or the ability to exercise or swim in such a facility for four to five years until we've found a replacement, I think we'd really be letting our people down.''
Councillors eventually decided to ask staff for a "phased plan" of the proposed expenditure to keep the pool up to standard.
At the meeting, councillors also discussed options for a new pool to replace the one at Onekawa.
Previously proposed Napier Aquatic Centre. Photo: Napier City Council
This has been a contentious public issue, after Onekawa residents took the council to court after it planned to build a new pool on the corner of Prebensen and Tamatea Dr in Napier.
The residents lost the battle, but the pool construction was halted.
However, the new report presented today showed a consulting company contracted by the council scored the Prebensen Dr site as the best option, saying it was a "low risk, greenfield" site.
It said replacing the pool at the current location would be risky, due to soil contamination.
Councillors said they needed to "test the information" about a new pool site and would discuss it in more detail at a further meeting.
*This story has been corrected. It initially said councillors discussed spending more than $8m per year on the current pool. This has been corrected to $8.6m over three years.