Upgrades to Counter Declining Pool Visits

Newcastle City Council has announced that its Lambton Swimming Centre will be remodelled as the city's premier aquatic and leisure centre as part of a plan to provide a better network of pools and leisure facilities across the city.

The plan aims to reverse declining attendances at the council's pool, with visitor numbers almost halving over recent years, from 591,457 to 325,592 a year. In addition the pools also lost 25% of use by schools between 2003 to 2007.

A Newcastle City Council spokesperson explained that "the pool services delivery model shows that our pools do not meet the current and future needs of our community.

"Lambton is the oldest swimming pool in Newcastle, aged 46 years.

"One of the biggest operating problems is that it is not at all energy efficient.

"It takes weeks to heat the outdoor pools after winter and consumes huge amounts of energy."

One proposal for the Lambton Swimming Centre is for it include new playgrounds and shade areas; an indoor 50-metre, 10-lane pool; water leisure playground; learn-to-swim pool; 25-metre pool; health and fitness centre; cafe; and additional outdoor waterslide.

An upgraded Lambton Swimming Centre would use renewable energy and be much more environmentally efficient.

Energy efficiency and sustainability at Kwinana Recquatic, Western Australia is explored in the May/June 2009 issue of Australasian Leisure Management.