At its meeting last night, Council approved a new Community Land Management Plan, and formally noted consultation on a draft lease and licence for the new Aquatic Centre.
Councillors noted that the Council itself had sought funding from the previous Liberal State and Federal governments to rebuild the facility on Park 2 in the Adelaide Park Lands.
Despite this, Councillor Henry Davis, a former Liberal Party member, sought to rescind approval for the Community Land Management Plan.
Other councillors acknowledged the State Government’s significant community consultation efforts around the Aquatic Centre, which involved hearing from more than 1200 users, sporting groups and local residents.
As a result of that consultation, the $135 million centre will include:
- a 50m, 10-lane indoor pool suitable for carnivals, sport and recreational use
- a 25m, six-lane outdoor pool with lagoon
- a dedicated warm-water indoor pool incorporating a rehabilitation program
- a dedicated indoor pool for learn-to-swim programs
- diving amenities
- extensive indoor and outdoor all-ages play areas with waterslides, splash zones, BBQs and lawned areas
- café available for both centre visitors and other Park 2 users
- gym and fitness facilities three times larger than previously planned
- spa, sauna and steam room
- community change rooms
- improved car parking with access from Jeffcott Road, improved public transport, pedestrian and cycle pathways connecting the centre with existing networks
The current Adelaide Aquatic Centre costs Adelaide City Council ratepayers more than $1 million a year.
The innovative design of the multi-level, sustainably-designed new facility will see more than a thousand square metres returned to open space, and will allow the new centre to be set back further from Barton Terrace West – up from the early planning of 40m – enhancing its connectivity with the Park Lands while improving the amenity for residents.
To accommodate this outcome and minimise the impact of construction on the Park Lands, the Government and the City of Adelaide have agreed that the existing Aquatic Centre will close during the major construction phase, from August 2024 until the project’s completion in the Summer of 2025-26.
Most current Aquatic Centre users, including learn-to-swim programs, will be accommodated across other facilities for the period between shutting the existing centre and the opening of the new centre, while the centre’s permanent staff can be redeployed in other roles.
Additional Sports Vouchers will be made available to all Learn to Swim program participants at the existing Aquatic Centre, to ease the cost on families during the construction period.
As put by Tom Koutsantonis
We’re getting on with the job and delivering what we committed to the people of South Australia – a brand new, significantly improved Adelaide Aquatic Centre.
We will end up with a much better outcome, that delivers a smaller Park Lands footprint and opens new spaces for sporting and community use.
The plan we have developed in consultation with pool users and the broader community will also deliver significant benefits for ratepayers in the City of Adelaide – who will no longer have to spend more than a million dollars each year propping up a facility which is past its use-by-date.
I thank the Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith and the majority of Adelaide City Councillors for supporting this great outcome for the community, the Park Lands and the state.
It is beyond disappointing that David Speirs, the Liberals and their friends are still seeking to block a new Aquatic Centre at every turn.
