Tauranga City Council has been urged to use common sense and solve the issue of over-staffing instead of trying to save money by cutting the opening hours of swimming pools.
A straight-talking Sheryl McLay delivered some no-nonsense advice near the end of four days of submissions to the council's Annual Plan - submissions that frequently featured pleas from swimming clubs and other aquatic sports desperate to avoid the impact that reduced hours would have on their activities.
Ms McLay is the head coach for Team Shorebreak Aquatic Sports and Triathlon Club and used her daily observations of running programmes at Baywave to suggest other ways to save money.
She questioned why four lifeguards needed to be on duty when public attendance was low at Baywave after 7pm, and accused the council of using its Pool Safe requirements as an excuse to not make changes.
"We have one lifeguard for every one-and a-half public users ... common sense tells us that you don't need four lifeguards."