Hope for Edgeware pool
Edgeware’s long wait for a new community swimming pool to replace the one controversially demolished by the Christchurch City Council could be nearing an end.
St Albans Pavilion and Pool Inc has lodged a resource consent application to build two pools on the site where the old Edgeware pool stood for more than 70 years.
The main pool will be 25 metres long while the smaller pool will be for learners and children. Both will be heated and available for recreational swimming and swim instruction programmes. It is proposed the pools will be open all year round during daylight hours.
The exact cost of building the pools has yet to be worked out but St Albans Pavilion and Pool vicepresident Paul Somerville said they anticipated they would cost between $2 million and $3m – money they had yet to raise.
Somerville said they would launch a community fundraising campaign once the resource consent application had been dealt with and agreement had been reached with the council over whether they would lease or buy the old pool site.
The original Edgeware pool was built in 1934 after a major fundraising drive by locals and was run by the St Albans Swim Club until the council took over its manage- ment in 2002. Four years later the council decided to close the pool because of its deteriorating condition. That decision sparked protest marches, public meetings and bitter clashes with councillors and then mayor Garry Moore, but despite the community outcry the council pushed ahead and demolished the pool in November 2006.
The community has been determined to build a new pool but the earthquakes delayed the project.
Somerville said the new pool complex would be a wonderful community asset and would help breathe new life into the Edgeware village. Local schools were strongly behind the project. The St Albans Swim Club was also looking forward to having a permanent home again.
The council has publicly notified the group’s consent application and given the public until July 1 to lodge submissions.