Bikini-clad plea for Christchurch swimming pool

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The fifth day of submissions on Christchurch's draft central city plan brightened considerably this morning when one activist made a bikini-clad plea to councillors.

Save Centennial Pool campaigner Simone Rewa Pearson, 36, made her submission over the pool's future dressed in a skimpy bikini.

After getting the councillor's attention, she told them the pool was "an essential inner city facility and should be restored promptly".

At the end of her allocated 10-minute submission, she approached Mayor Bob Parker and presented him with a rubber duck to remind him of the community's concerns about their beloved pool.

He thanked her politely, and said he would give it to grandkids.

After the session, Mrs Rewa Pearson said the bikini stunt had worked. She said: "It certainly made the councillors sit up and listen. "It must be a pretty hard job sitting for a week listening to people from the community, and I wanted to make an impact and also keep it real for them. This is about real people who want basic community facilities.

"We can't wait for a minimum of seven years, from February 2011, for a mega-centre in another part of town.

"We just want our local pool back so we can teach our kids how to swim, and work on our girth-quake."

She said the Centennial Pool was the most economically viable of all the council's pools and was concerned that over its future in the draft city plan.

The mum-of-two added: "The draft plan has it down to become a central playground and we have serious concerns over this, especially because engineers reports on the pool have not yet been released."

Submissions from individuals and group organisations continue this afternoon.

Christchurch City Council will hear over 400 submissions on the draft city plan presented during the allocated fortnight, which ends next week.

The city's rebuild is expected to cost $2 billion and take around 20 years to complete.