Answers about Raetihi Pool wanted - board member

The Raetihi swimming pools are heated by solar panels during their summer opening season. Photo / Bevan Conley

The people of Raetihi are waiting to see whether the improvements they want to their swimming pool will get action from Ruapehu District Council.

Under the council's 2017 town revitalisation project, a wide range of people and organisations, including iwi, were asked their priorities on what needed to change.

The result was unanimous, Waiouru-Waimarino Community Board member John Chapman said, they wanted improvements to their swimming pool complex in Parapara Rd.

"It's the one facility that the town has, and it's well used. You will not go a summer's day without watching youngsters going back and forth to the pool."

When Raetihi residents decided improvements to their pool were a priority, the Raetihi Forum put forward proposals to the council in April 2019.

It wanted the pool open all year round, and it wanted the addition of spa pools or hot tubs.

The pool is already heated by solar panels on its roof. The additional heat could be supplied through a heat pump, the forum said. It also suggested other amenities, including play equipment and a barbecue area.

Chapman is now afraid Raetihi's pool will be sidelined in favour of improvements to the pool in Ohakune, because it is a tourist town.

He's also annoyed that questions he asked the council about the pool situation are being treated as a Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act request, and he could be charged nearly $600 for the information.

That's an abuse and it should be freely available to him as an elected board member, Chapman said.

Ruapehu Mayor Don Cameron and councillor Elijah Pue have declined to comment on the situation.

Fellow community board member Allan Whale said he supported the upgrade of the pools in both towns, and it would be unfair to say more at this point.

There was no response from the council to the forum's proposal, Chapman said.

However, the council asked national company Community Leisure Management (CLM), which manages its pools, for an interim report on the pools at both Ohakune and Raetihi.

That report was delayed by Covid-19, but appeared on the community board agenda in May this year. It said improvements at Raetihi would benefit sport, fitness and education, whereas improvements at Ohakune would benefit the tourism industry.

Both would need more detailed planning.

The community board rejected that report and sent it back.

"That's not what the community wants, and is asking for," Chapman said.

He was told a second report would be commissioned.

On September 7 he asked the council what it had asked for in the CLM report.

Chapman said if he has to pay for that information he may complain to the Ombudsman.

A second report has been written on September 27 and will be tabled at the board's October 7 meeting.