Kids ‘save Khandallah pool’ art moved before councillor visit
Just minutes before Wellington City councillors and staff were due to visit the threatened Khandallah Pool, a staff member moved children’s pictures aimed at saving the facility.
Toni Shanks, a Save Khandallah Pool committee member, said councillors and council staff were visiting the outdoor pool on Friday as many on those voting on its future had not been there.
The group had attached local children’s art work calling for the pool to be saved to the fence. Just before the visit, a council staff member removed all the art work from where it would have been visible to visitors and re-displayed it on the benches of the boys’ changing room, she said.
She retrieved the posters and was given permission from the owners of the neighbouring cafe to display them on its exterior.
The council, facing massive bills and about to impose another hefty rates rise on the city’s residents, is looking to close the 99-year-old outdoor pool and other community facilities.
Part of the reason is the estimated $11.7 million upgrade fee that the council says is needed to fix it. Local councillor Diane Calvert believed the design put forward by council staff was over-engineered and the community would be happy with a simpler option.
She said the removal of the art work was because the “council does not seem to want to let elected members hear from the community”.
The community had been promised proper community engagement before the pool’s go-no-go call in the long term plan, but this was found wanting. The fate of the nearby Wadestown Community Centre wasinthesameboat,shesaid.
A petition to save the pool had so far got more than 3000 signatures.
Council spokesperson Victoria Barton-Chapple said the posters were removed ahead of the annual Dogs ‘n’ Togs event, in which dogs are allowed to use the pool before it is drained for winter.
They were put out in the changing rooms for councillors to see before a community member took them back to display at the cafe. “The councillors who attended the site visit were advised about the artwork removal and the original intent for them to view the works in the changing room,” Barton-Chapple said.
Ruby Lynch, 6, stood outside the pool when councillors visited and delivered local councillor Ray Chung a parcel of letters from her class at Ngaio school calling for the pool to be saved.
Speaking through her father, Ruby said the removal of the posters made her “sad because of all the effort we made and it made me feel like the councillors weren’t listening to us”.
The pool was where she got “so good” in the water.
“It is also so much fun pushing my dad off the diving board. They shouldn’t close it, it’s fine as it is,” she said.
Chung said the council staffer who took the posters down was a “naughty little rascal”.
“There was no need to do that,” he said. He reckoned the pool needed, at most, $1m worth of work.