Community invited to dive into consultation on year-round pool facility
Locals are being invited to help shape the delivery of Newcastle's first indoor public pool as City of Newcastle welcomes swimmers back into the water at Lambton today for the new season.
City of Newcastle will launch its consultation with a workshop at Lambton Park War Memorial Swimming Centre from 11am to 4pm on 29 August, which will give community members a chance to provide feedback on the proposed year-round pool facility.
A temporary "ideas wall" will be set up on site until 20 October so pool users can share their views during their next visit, while community members can also have their say online via City of Newcastle's website.
Today marks the start of the extended swimming season at Lambton Park War Memorial Swimming Centre, with City of Newcastle's pools at Wallsend, Mayfield, Stockton and Beresfield reopening at the beginning of the September school holidays.
Creating a year-round pool facility at Lambton is a priority of City of Newcastle's Inland Pools Strategy 2043, which sets out to ensure Newcastle's network of public swimming pools are fit for purpose in the long term.
Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes said it was important to hear from a variety of community members on their aspirations for the city's first public year-round pool facility.
"We have invested more than $5 million upgrading and $2 million maintaining the city's public pool network during the past few years to ensure they continue to meet the expectations and evolving needs of our community," Cr Nelmes said.
"We want to make sure the community shapes the direction and decision-making for our inland pools, including the delivery of a year-round pool facility at Lambton.
"Swimming and aquatic recreation are intrinsic to our community's way of life. The addition of a year-round pool facility at Lambton Park War Memorial Swimming Centre will ensure we can enhance our learn-to-swim programming and continue improving water safety across our region.
"I look forward to hearing from our community on how they think this new facility could look and feel, and what features it might include."
City of Newcastle's pools experienced their busiest season in almost 30 years, attracting around 450,000 visitors during 2023/24.
A busy program of maintenance and upgrades have been completed across the five pools during the winter closure to prepare for the return of swimmers, including safety upgrades, extensive re-painting, and maintenance of pool tiles and promenades.
Almost $1.5 million has also been invested into new heat pumps and solar matting at the Mayfield and Wallsend pools, with installation to be completed in time for the new season.
Cr Nelmes said the heating upgrades will help regulate the water temperature at the two pools during the cooler months of the swimming season, with the pools utilised for 30 weeks from the start of the September school holidays through to the end of the April school holidays each year.
An additional project to replace the existing solar heating system at Beresfield pool will be undertaken next year as part of a $220,000 grant received from the NSW Government's Local Small Commitments Allocation program.
