Whanganui East Pool will open next season but district’s outdoor swimming plan still under wraps

Visits to the pool nearly halved in 2024/25 compared to the previous season. Photo / Lewis Gardner

The Whanganui East Pool will survive another season, but the future of outdoor swimming in the district is yet to be revealed.

Whanganui District Council is awaiting recommendations from a 40-person citizens’ assembly, which will inform its decision on how to use $2 million set aside in its 2025/26 budget.

The recommendations were due to be completed in time for the annual plan deliberations on May 28.

However, at that meeting, council chief executive David Langford said the timeframe may have been too ambitious, but the $2m funding “hasn’t gone anywhere” and the Whanganui East Pool was budgeted to open next summer.

“I know Catherine [Dutton, council chief experiences officer] and the aquatics team are looking at how we can do a bit more with that budget and improve the experience of people using the pool,” Langford said.

“Hopefully, we’ll have another fun summer season and we’ll have less rain this time.”

Last year, council officers recommended closing the Whanganui East Pool but that was overruled by elected members.

It had a maintenance and operational budget of about $300,000 for the 2024/25 season.

Langford told the Chronicle this week the citizens’ assembly had completed five scheduled meetings and would present recommendations at a council meeting in mid-July.

“Until the council makes a decision to do something else, the budget for operating the pool is in every year for all 10 years of the Long-Term Plan [2024-2034],” he said.

A June 5 report from council aquatics manager Lucy Thompson said there were 4890 unique admissions to the Whanganui East Pool in the 2024/25 season, which ran from December 19 to February 5.

In 2023/24, there were 9671 unique admissions in a season that ran from December 16 to March 16.

The report said “a very bad start to the season, with heavy rain and wind” had affected numbers in 2024/25.

Whanganui East Pool was open every day over the 2023/24 season but that was reduced to Tuesday to Saturday last summer.

In February, the council announced the formation of a citizens’ assembly, with each member paid $500 and kept anonymous.

In May, council chief strategy officer Sarah O’Hagan said anonymity allowed the panel “to engage fully, particularly if they wish to offer personal opinions or are involved in controversial topics”.

Speaking during deliberations last month, Langford said the assembly’s recommendations and the council’s final decision on outdoor swimming would not require changes to the annual plan.

“If the decision is relatively modest in terms of its financial impact, we’ve got $2 million in the plan and you can proceed straight away to implementation.

“If you make a decision to do something more substantial, that funding allows you to proceed with planning and design work, getting ready for a budget to go into the next Long-Term Plan.”

Mike Tweed is a multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.