Council makes shock decision to heat Coffs Harbour Olympic pool within a year

Swimming community in shock after ‘mammoth’ decision results in $500,000 upgrade.

Coffs Harbour War Memorial Olympic Pool customer service supervisor Sophie McConnachie, team leader Richard Leslie and swim school coordinator Bec Gumm. Photo: Tim Jarrett

When Cr Keith Rhoades got up and uttered the classic Whitlam phrase “it’s time”, he took the words right out of Julie Coffey’s mouth.

“When he stood up and said that I thought yes, it is,” said Ms Coffey

The keen swimmer was overwhelmed following Coffs Harbour City Council’s shock decision to heat the Coffs Harbour War Memorial Olympic Pool within the year, a project set to cost approximately $530,000.

Ms Coffey said the decision was “mammoth” considering the many other projects council has on the go and the amount of criticism it had been receiving on a variety of fronts.

She was eager to emphasise it was now up to the community to repay the “leap of faith” by getting behind the facility.

“What they did was amazing. Nobody expected it,” she said.

“I think now it is up to the people of Coffs Harbour. It’s the centre of town, let's make it a meeting place not just for swimming but for everybody in the community to enjoy.”

The Coffs Harbour War Memorial Olympic Pool will finally be heated after confirmation Coffs Harbour City Council will spend more than $500,000 on an upgrade. Photo: Tim Jarrett

Ms Coffey said for six months of the year there was “not a soul” in the pool and swimmers, who were often swimming six to a lane in the 25m pool, would look at it thinking “it just didn’t make any sense”.

The campaign to heat the pool has been years in the making and if it weren’t for the intervention of a united council it may have been longer.

The original recommendation was to include the pool in “a future delivery program” but Mr Rhoades said it was an option that “sends me nowhere”.

“I think it’s well and truly time we move forward with this project,” he said. “(The recommendation) doesn’t say when, it doesn’t say whether it is 2022, 2023, 2025 … it doesn’t give any direction.”

Mr Rhoades successfully moved that the project be completed in the 2021/22 financial year in readiness for next winter.