School pools dry up over summer

Sights like this in the city's school pools over the summer holidays will be few and far between. Picture / Kellie Blizard

School pools across Auckland will remain empty or under-used this summer without council funding to keep them open for community use.

About a dozen schools in areas lacking in public facilities formerly received a council subsidy to help pay for pool lifeguards during the summer holidays.

But funding stopped in 2001, leaving schools from Avondale to Otahuhu unable to cover the cost of opening for the community.

Gladstone School in Mt Albert was one of them. Executive officer Judith Howe says the school stopped opening for the community after the council pulled its $1200 annual subsidy.

She says families now have to pay $120 for a key to the facility and access is restricted to immediate family members only - it used to cost $2 per swim.

"It saddens me that only the rich can afford it," she says.

"Parents say they can't afford it, so it's not nice when we all know that Christmas is an expensive time of year, and I don't like the distinction between rich and poor."

She says the council's subsidy was significant in terms of coming up with the $9600 needed to pay for a pool groomer, chemicals and a lifeguard during the summer.

Now the pool is under-used. Just 51 families bought keys to the pool last year. The school has 858 pupils.

Mrs Howe says the school has applied for grants from charitable trusts to keep the pool open, but has been turned down.

"We would like to see subsidies brought back," she says.

Auckland City councillor Glenda Fryer also wants to see the subsidies reintroduced and is behind a drive to get the council to consider bringing them back.

She remembers taking her four children to Kowhai School pool on hot summer days, describing it as a godsend.

"The idea was that the kids could go there by themselves and meet up with friends," she says.

Ms Fryer says the subsidised pools were cheap and well-used by the community.

"It has always saddened me to see these great facilities lying idle," she says

Since funding dried up, Kowhai School has not opened for the community over the summer.

Principal Paul Douglas says the school could not justify spending the money to keep it open.

He says the pool has been out of use for the past year and the school is exploring the possibility of a private partnership to get it going again.

"Swimming pools are not easy in terms of safety and maintenance," says Mr Douglas. Those comments are echoed by Owairaka School principal Diana Tregoweth.

She says the school used to open for the community, but council funding was never enough to cover the cost of two lifeguards, anyway.

The school pool will remain empty until after the holidays to prevent people from breaking in to use it, she says.

Most schools The Aucklander contacted will close their pools for the holidays with a few exceptions, including Gladstone and Cornwall Park Primaries, which rent keys to the school community.

The recommendation to reconsider helping fund schools to open their pools over summer goes before the council's art, culture and recreation committee this week.

- THE AUCKLANDER