Could hot pools be built in Wainui?

After a long day tramping through the Rimutaka Forest Park, what could be better than easing back into a hot pool surrounded by native bush?

The idea of expanding Wainuiomata’s pool complex so it houses hot pools for use over winter was floated by Hutt City councillor Campbell Barry last week.

Barry said Wainuiomata’s popular summer-only pool was under utilised and swimmers came from across the region when it was open.

But the pool was currently left locked up and empty for more than half the year.

‘‘I guess this idea as come from trying to find a solution to that problem and to help try and put Wainuiomata on the map.’’

Barry plans to ask council offers to consider bringing forward budgeted maintenance work on the existing pool and investigate options for adding hot pools.

Council had $11m budgeted ‘‘to redo the pool’’ over the next decade, so any expansion could coincide with that work, he said.

Costs could also be offset by making the project a public-private partnership, as long as the facility would still be affordable for locals.

Hot pools could help make Wainuiomata an appealing day trip destination for cruise ship visitors, he said.

‘‘We’ve got 100,000 people going to Rimutaka Forest Park every year. You could go out there, come in for a hot pool, grab some lunch or dinner down on Queen St, take it to the top of Wainuiomata Hill and enjoy the view.’’

Although Barry had secured the support of two existing councillors, Councillor Chris Milne was cynical about the proposal ‘‘around the time of the election’’ which he likened to Trevor Mallard’s talk of moas.

Milne said Lower Hutt already had six pools, with users paying just 40 per cent of their running costs.

‘‘I would be hard-pressed to support a 60 per cent subsidy from ratepayers to enable people to swim in a heated pool in the winter,’’ Milne said. ‘‘Lower Hutt has far more pools per head of population than other comparable cities.’’

Barry isn’t the first to propose a hot pool complex in the region this year.

In May, Prefab cafe owner Jeff Kennedy proposed a salt water hot pool complex to sit alongside the Freyberg Pool at Oriental Bay.