Belfast pool plan for the Games

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32430, 17 October 1970, Page 14

Belfast pool plan for the Games

Proposals by the Belfast Swimming Club to develop a covered pool at Sheldon' Park, Belfast, at a cost of about $220,000 were reported by the reserves committee to a meeting of the Waimairi County Council on Thursday evening.

A club deputation had told the committee that the club had always considered a 50metre pool to be essential for Belfast. It was evident that an eight-lane pool with adequate seating could be built in the suburbs and used for

the Commonwealth 'Games for about the same cost as covering and altering the Centennial Pool. After the Games, permanent seating for 2000 would be retained on one side, and temporary seating for 2500 removed to allow a learners’ pool, diving pool, and paddling pool to be added for about $30,000. The council’s waterworks engineer (Mr R. E. Young) said that the pool, if it served a population of 100,000 could be expected to “lose” $BO,OOO a year. Attendances at the Jellie Park pool had declined, Mr Young said, and it was not reasonable for the Belfast club to expect its attendances to triple if the pool were heated because Jellie Park experience had shown that heating did not lead to an appreciable increase in attendances. The council decided to suggest to the club that it submit its proposals to the Canterbury Amateur Swimming Association for consideration of the merits of submitting it to the Commonwealth Games Committee, and that if the response was favourable, the council would call a meeting to discuss the provision of the complex on, a metropolitan basis. The club was also asked to investigate the establishment and running costs of a community pool for Belfast.