Summer Pool Season Gets Green Light

While the region is at orange under the new COVID protection framework, the South Taranaki District Council’s free community summer pools have been given the green light to open.

A relieved Recreation and Facilities Manager, Phil Waite, says the District’s six free community pools in Manaia, Kaponga, Eltham, Rāwhitiroa, Pātea and Waverley will open to the public from Saturday 8 January.

“We normally open these pools in mid-December, but with the uncertainty surrounding the new traffic light system, we didn't think we'd be able to open the pools at all this summer. Thankfully yesterday we received further guidance from the government that gave us the ‘all clear’ to open. Now that we know we can open, we need four weeks to fill the pools, get the circulation and filtration systems operating and employ enough staff to lifeguard the pools.”

Waite says Council will consider keeping the pools open a bit longer to account for the delayed start but that will depend on whether enough lifeguards can be found as many tend to be students who return to university in February.

From Friday 3 December, the Hāwera Aquatic Centre (which has only been operating lane swimming), will again be able to cater for recreational swimming.

Under the traffic light system all Council public facilities will remain open to all visitors with the usual physical distancing, capacity limits, mask wearing and contact tracing procedures in place.