Foreshore no place for indoor swimming pool

It wasn’t until a few days ago that I even thought to question the wisdom of having New Plymouth’s aquatic centre on the foreshore. But then two things happened.

First, Puke Ariki provided a heritage picture to the Taranaki Daily News showing Kāwaroa Park before the pool.

It was a serene scene of grass, trees, picnicking people, a band rotunda and what looks like fairground rides. Most noticeable was the unimpeded view. It was only a black and white photo, but it looked idyllic.

The next day I was at the Todd Energy Aquatic Centre with my kids. Just as I did when I was young, they love the place and routinely beg to visit.

But as I sat there in the lukewarm water trying to look through the fogged up windows to the sea, I couldn’t help but feel we’d got it all wrong.

For all its recreational value to the community the aquatic centre (and let’s not forget the squash club) is surrounded by a wall. Once you’re in you mostly can’t see out, even while you’re using the outdoor pool.

Which is to say the facility could be anywhere and make no difference to the enjoyment one attains from using it.

This makes putting it on a piece of central city foreshore seem so woefully short-sighted. That land should be used in a way that celebrates its location, not in a way that hides it.

As a modern city New Plymouth has been slow to embrace its coastal location and make the most of it. It was only with the construction of the Coastal Walkway in the late 1990s that its relationship with the foreshore changed resolutely from industrial to recreational.

That’s what suddenly made the location of Centre City so jarring, but the location of the Todd Energy Aquatic Centre is also out of step with our modern ambitions for our coastline.

Under current plans there is no intention to shift the pool (and I have never heard it even discussed). But those plans are so far in the future as to be nothing more than ideas.

And currently the idea is to wait till 2032 and then spend $36m redeveloping it into a fit-forpurpose facility. It will basically be a brand-new centre. The Olympicsized pool, for instance, is gone.

With so much money forecast to be poured into the facility – and bear in mind that price estimates for work a decade away are little more than a guess – it is timely now to starting asking the bigger question of whether it should even be where it is.

A new facility at a new location would potentially not cost significantly more, but that cost would be offset by the asset the city would gain in having an impressive swathe of coastal land in the middle of the city.

Think of the likes of Auckland’s Mission Bay, Timaru’s Caroline Bay or Tauranga’s Memorial Park.

I have no great idea what the area could be used for but that’s not for me to decide anyway.

I just know the area has so much more potential for future generations than as a place for a fully-fenced swimming pool.

The amenity value of the location is not the only consideration. If the facility is upgraded it will be decades before moving it could be considered again.

What will the impact of global heating be in those decades? Is investing tens of millions of dollars into a community asset next to the coast a wise idea?

The recent announcement of the Destination Play recreational area to be built beside the pool and squash facility comes at just the right time for us to see the potential of that area.

Imagine if instead of fences and walls, the view to the north of this new community asset was open park space, or some other land use that celebrated its seaside location.

Perhaps one of the most exciting changes Destination Play will bring is the steps down to the rock pools to literally connect people with the coast the city is built on.

It would be great to see the same sort built in two or three other locations between Port Taranaki and East End Beach, where there is currently no genuine access to the foreshore.

As a city New Plymouth has been slow to embrace and make the best use of its location. And there is nothing wrong with being slow just as long as it takes us in the right direction. Eventually.

As a modern city New Plymouth has been slow to embrace its coastal location and make the most of it.