Pool's fate not sealed +Poll

The is pool is losing about 30,000 litres of water a day. Photo/File

Wanganui East's aged swimming pool may have had its funding pulled from the district council Annual Plan but the community has the power to have it reinstated.

The pool has been plagued with problems, largely because it is 100 years old and its infrastructure is in need of urgent repair. And it is losing about 30,000 litres of water a day and still no-one can say where it's going.

Hopes of getting council funding for the next season took a blow when a budget figure of $391,000 for the next financial year, and $47,000 in the following two years, was taken out of the council's draft Annual Plan.

But at a council meeting last week, Mayor Annette Main said public submissions to the plan could bring about a change.

The problems at the pool came to a head last year when it was found that almost 18 million litres of water had been lost in the first six months of 2013. The council carried out temporary repairs before it opened for this summer in December.

Despite those repairs, water meters continue to show the pool is losing 30,000 litres of water every day.

Leighton Toy, council's deputy property manager, said the council had been working with the pool trust in a bid to isolate pipes the water might be escaping from.

"We've limited it to an underground area, and the trust agrees with us, but at the moment we can't find out exactly where the problem is," Mr Toy said.

That amount of water equates to about a quarter of the quantity needed to fill the learners' pool.

The Wanganui East Pool Trust manages the complex, and its present contract expires at the end of April.

Councillor Philippa Baker-Hogan said while the draft plan made no reference to the complex, the council needed to make a decision one way or the other.

Ms Main said the chance would come when the council heard public submissions into its 2014-15 plan.

"If council then decides to put money into the Wanganui East pool then it would have to happen."

Estimates put the cost of building a new outdoor complex at $3.5 million.

The plan's preamble said points to consider were whether the community thought an outdoor pool was important, if there were other pools that could be used or where was the best location for public pools.