Satisfactory meeting on Games pool

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32679, 7 August 1971, Page 1

Satisfactory meeting on Games pool

A “very satisfactory meeting” of the Christchurch City Council Commonwealth Games pool sub-committee with representatives of the New Zealand Amateur Swimming Association had been held yesterday, said the Mayor (Mr A. R. Guthrey) last evening.

“It is hoped the final estimated cost for the pool and ' its facilities and plans will be before the next meeting of the council on August 16,” Mr Guthrey said. He had called the meeting of the subcommittee with representatives of the Swimming Association as soon as he had heard that the association was not aware of economies in the improvement of the pool—economies being considered by the council because of rising costs. The council was anxious to have a pool to Olympic standards which would be an asset to citizens for many years to come, Mr Guthrey said. It would be the only pool up to Olympic standard, covered and fully air-con-ditioned, in Christchurch—and therefore had to be on a central site. The council was considering a training pool that would also be a learners pool, and if this compromise

was practical and met with the desires of all citizens—including top swimmers, those in training, those learning and those who swam for recreation—this would be in the final plan. Mr Guthrey said the council was still aware of the need for a pool to serve the eastern suburbs but still considered that a lido-type pool, so successful in Waltham, was the ideal type for the area.