Plan to save city's Municipal Pools sinks

Two sports have given up on saving Hamilton Municipal Pools. Photo / Christine Cornege

Plans to save the leaky Hamilton Municipal Pools have been ditched after the groups backing them realised they would be too expensive.

Swim Waikato and Sport Waikato have completed their business case on the long-term future of the pool and deemed it wasn't viable under a trust arrangement.

The joint proposal to the council during its long term plan hearings in May was one of the last hopes for the 100-year-old pool and the council decided to close it for a year to give more time for the proposal to be investigated.

But the operations and activity performance committee heard yesterday that the groups had walked away from the proposal.

Meanwhile, the council has also committed to spending $50,000 on establishing what repair work is needed and a report will be provided to the council by the end of the year so it can make a final decision on the pool's future.

But Hamilton City Council general manager community Lance Vervoort said preliminary findings into the pool showed there were numerous leaks.

The investigation was also looking at ground stability and repair costs.

The council has no money in its 10-year budget for the pool, including future remedial work estimated at $475,000 or operating costs.

In May, Swim Waikato and Sport Waikato told the council it would set up a trust to run the pool for three years if the council covered half the pool's operating costs, while the other half was provided by pool revenue.

During that time the trust proposed spending $2.9 million on an upgrade for another 10 to 15 years with a further $1.9 million to set up a gym and cafe at the facility to boost revenue.

The idea was put forward as the groups were concerned about losing swimming lanes, particularly with the decision to delay the new Rototuna swimming facility for at least 10 years.

Mr Vervoort said the council was now exploring other options to ensure there were enough swimming lanes to meet demand.

Sport Waikato chief executive Matthew Cooper said the proposal was dropped after more issues with the pool were revealed and the initial repair costs ballooned from $40,000 to more than $400,000.

"There seemed to be a lot of new problems coming through with the pool which meant it was unviable for that business case to proceed.

"Whilst it's extremely disappointing we've got to find solutions for aquatic options around the city."