The club’s concerns about the pool fee increase

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Facing a 48% increase in pool fees, Queenstown Swimming Club believes it will struggle to keep its head above water.

In the council’s draft annual plan, pool lane rent for club members goes up from a “charity” rate of $6.75 per lane per hour to $10 per hour.

As a result, club rental fees would rise from about $28,000 a year to $42,000, which must be paid by the swimmers — and their families — based on how much they use the pool.

Plus, junior members already pay $179 a year to access the Event Center’s Alpine Aqualand pool.

The club’s immediate past president, David Marriott, says board dues alone, with the proposed increase, would average more than $1000 a year, plus coaching expenses, meaning membership The average at the club is $2,500 and more a year – “a sum well beyond the means of most families.”

“If you have two kids, you probably can’t afford to have them both swim unless you’re rich enough.”

With the club’s existing dues, Marriott says the roughly 50-member club — which trains competitive swimmers — is already struggling to attract members who graduate from the board’s much cheaper swim-learning program.

Indeed, he believes they are already overcharged by the council and has allegedly proposed abolishing ward fees altogether.

”We accept that it’s probably a pipe dream at the moment, but we were trying to emphasize how different it was here than anywhere else.

“In Dunedin, for example, clubs pay a lane fee at Moana Pool, but it’s peppercorn stuff, and that’s because Dunedin City Council considers itself keen to support those clubs.”

The swimming club pours cold water during the excursion for a fee

In Auckland, he points out that children under 16, including those who attend swimming clubs, have free access to municipal swimming pools “as a means of actively supporting and encouraging water safety”.

”We are surrounded by water, we should promote water safety.

”Queenstown Lakes District Council should see the swim club as a partner, ”not as a client they can make money from”.

Marriott says you get the situation where an adult, having just paid an entrance fee to the Alpine Aqualand pool, is swimming at a much cheaper rate than the youngster in the lane next to them, “which is just nonsense “.

If the council’s fee increase goes through, he fears swimming will be far less attractive to children than other sports in which they pay little or nothing to use the council’s courts.

”Why is swimming penalized?”

He says membership plummeted when the pool was closed for an extended period due to ceiling repairs, followed closely by Covid closures and restrictions.

He warns that if numbers fall due to increased dues, the future of the club would be in doubt as it needs enough members to afford a professional coach.

Marriott points out that their coach, Lauren Taylor, also assists with the municipality’s swim learning program and helps local schools organize their own swim meet.

He’s also concerned about Council’s planning to raise the cost of pool rental for swim competitions, which means they would have to raise entry fees.

In its presentation of its annual plan, the club says it would be “extremely sad” if the club were forced to close or if swimming became a “sport that only the wealthy could participate in competitively in Queenstown”.

“Doesn’t sit comfortably”

Longtime counselor Craig ‘Ferg’ Ferguson, himself a former swim club parent, says ‘I certainly worry about the [lane hire] the ascent is as steep as it is”.

The chair of the council’s community and services committee, Ferguson, says he will put in his five cents when the council deliberates on the proposal.

”I think that’s just a little too high considering that, not too long ago, we couldn’t get staff and had to close the pool for a period of time, at the weekends.

“So going out and raising taxes, at that level, I’m not comfortable with at all.”

– scoop@scene.co.nz