Council 'moving quickly' over pool options

Late yesterday afternoon, Wanaka went from a town without a swimming pool to a town with two swimming pools in prospect.

The existing Wanaka pool closed on Friday after an engineering assessment confirmed the building was a ''very low level'' earthquake risk.

That caused upset among swimmers who flooded the Queenstown Lakes District Council with comments.

Then yesterday at 5.15pm, council general manager operations Ruth Stokes sent an email to media saying the council was ''moving quickly'' to consider all options including the ''extent and cost of remedial strengthening work that would be required to reopen in the short term''.

But she also revived an idea for a new pool in Wanaka's Three Parks subdivision.

That idea was rejected by the council in March in favour of a $2.1 million upgrade and expansion of the existing pool, now closed.

Staff were ''already assessing options for upgrading the pool and adding a learners' pool, before Friday's closure,'' she said.

''Another possibility under consideration is to build a completely new facility at the Three Parks site along with the new Wanaka Sports Facility.

''We are continuing to evaluate the viability of those options,'' Mrs Stokes said.

Her email pipped by just one minute an email from the developers planning the huge Northlake residential development on the outskirts of the town.

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Council 'moving quickly' over pool options