The committee behind the Motueka Aquatic Centre who are working to raise $4.4m for the long-awaited facility. Photo: Supplied
Some Motueka residents are wondering if they'll ever get to take a dip in the pool they've been raising money for since the '90s.
There have been several different plans, a handful of feasibility studies, and even a referendum on whether to build an indoor, heated pool in the largest town, north of Nelson, in the top of the South Island.
Tasman District Council has allocated $15.6 million to the project and bought a piece of land in King Edward St, and now a new fundraising campaign is being launched with $4.4m needed from the community, around 22 percent of the total build cost, as per council policy for funding community facilities, in order for it to go ahead.
Motueka Aquatic Centre fundraising committee chair Ross Loveridge said he had faith the community would be able to raise that amount.
"It is a big task but it is achievable and we already have money in the bank with the support of the Motueka Lions, Lionesses and Rotary and their contributions, we have actually almost got a million dollars that we can count on."
Sausage sizzles, bake sales, raffles and other events over the years had raised around $250,000, and there has also been a gift of $400,000 from the Ngawhatu Pool Users Group, after the closure of the former psychiatric hospital in Nelson.
Loveridge said some of the money previously raised had been spent on developing designs, the first feasibiity study and a project manager, at the request of the council, while the rest remained in the bank.
"Everything was legitimate expenditure, none of that money has been wasted."
Loveridge said there remained a strong desire to see the pool built.
"We are definitely the largest town in the South Island, if not New Zealand without a covered, heated swimming pool. It used to be an opportunity and now it is an embarrassment we don't have one."
Fundraising signs for the Motueka community pool, a campaign which has been running for more than 20 years. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee
It's hard to find someone in Motueka who doesn't know about years of planning for an indoor swimming pool. One resident recalled helping to organise a fundraiser for it 25 years ago.
"We had a big night at the memorial hall and we were all wearing t-shirts with Splash 2000 on them and we had all the plans of what it was going to look like."
Twenty-five years on, she said it was "about bloody time they did it".
Another local said he and his wife won a raffle during some of the early fundraising, and almost everyone in the town had contributed to the project in one way or another.
"The pool needs to be here now, it's time they built it."
Another resident said an aquatic centre would benefit the whole community, young and old.
"It is just unbelievable we are having such a hassle getting one."
Aquatic centre for Motueka decades in the making
The idea for an indoor pool was first raised when the town's recreation centre opened in the late 1980s. A committee was formed and fundraising began, but residents narrowly voted against the pool during a referendum held in the late 1990s.
Parklands School was considered as a potential site in the early 2000s, but went on to build its own facility and a subsequent plan to heat and enclose the Motueka High School Pool did not proceed after it became clear the Tasman District Council could not invest in facillities on land it did not own.
A council-owned reserve was considered next and ruled out due to the lack of space for future growth. Then, in 2023, council staff found a suitable site on King Edward St, which was purchased as a prospective site for the aquatic centre.
The idea for an indoor, heated swimming pool in Motueka was first raised in the 1980s and there have been three feasibility studies, a referendum and several different plans for an aquatic centre in the decades since. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee
Early plans are for the centre to include a lane pool, a learn-to-swim and a toddler's pool, and potentially a hydrotherapy pool and a spa pool.
Long-time committee member Fred Hickling said despite it all, support hadn't waned over the years, with the most recent feasibility study in 2022 confirming the need for a heated, indoor pool in Motueka.
He said the project had always felt like it was just a couple of years away from completion and people were always asking him when it was going to be done.
"This is it, the last chance bloody corral...this is the big opportunity for everybody in the district to come to the party and get their hands in their pockets and move some cash."
The council recently rephased $1m in its 10-year plan, which would allow the project team to take the next step in securing a design and build contractor.
Tasman mayor Tim King said there was some skepticism about whether the pool would ever be built.
"There's been various proposals back over the last couple of decades at least and at various stages it has got almost to the point of kicking off and then for a range of reasons, often council decision making in terms of funding, it hasn't quite got to that last stage so it would be great to see it finally get to completion."
King said the final design was needed alongside the $4.4m in fundraising and he was confident the community would be able to make that happen.
"It seems like a huge sum of money and it certainly is a lot but if I think back to all the community facilities we've built around the region in the last 25 years, a lot smaller communities have raised significant chunks of that sort of money and every community so far that has had one of these projects has managed to hit their fundraising target."
Once community fundraising is complete, it's hoped construction will begin in 2027, with the aquatic centre then to open in 2029.
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