Council ignored warnings on tepid baths: swimmers

About 195,000 people use Auckland's tepid baths each year. Photo / The Aucklander

Swimmers say Auckland's tepid baths would never have had to close if council officials had listened to repeated warnings that the building needed maintenance.

The 96-year-old baths were closed on Sunday - two days before councillors were to vote on a plan to re-develop them - after an engineers' report said the roof would pose a danger in acyclone.

Lawyer Gary Gotlieb told councillors on the Auckland City Council arts, culture and recreation committee yesterday officers had received reports every year since 2002 warning that immediate maintenance work was needed.

"They did nothing. Then they said [that] because the pool was not being maintained properly, they were going to close it."

He said the lack of action was appalling.

Councillors voted yesterday to try to temporarily re-open the pools after the roof is fixed.

The complex would then be closed again for a bigger, $12 million, upgrade after the Rugby World Cup.

The full upgrade could require the pools to close for four years.

Swimmer Jeff Carter, representing about 100 masters and ocean swimmers, said the engineers, whose report prompted the closure, should have been asked to look at ways to keep the pools open while the roof was fixed.

Mr Carter said that if the maintenance had been done in the early 2000s, the problem would never have arisen.

About 195,000 people a year use the baths.