Glen Iris: Stonnington Council ticks off $3.9m in works at Harold Holt Swim Centre

A pool with a prime ministerial name is set to receive big upgrades, but some of the cash is going to something which will remain off limits.

The Harold Holt pool is set to receive a string of upgrades for its outdoor facilities. Picture: Josie Hayden

Diving is set to return to a popular Melbourne pool this summer after an 18-year absence, but not in the way it was done in past.

Stonnington councillors unanimously ticked off $3.9m of works on outdoor facilities at Glen Iris’s Harold Holt Swim Centre at its meeting on Monday night.

It includes restoring the pool’s heritage-listed dive tower, which was built in 1969 and closed in 2003 due to wear and tear and safety concerns.

The Harold Holt Swimming Pool’s dive tower will remain off limits and restored as a “monument”. Picture: Josie Hayden

A council report stated the tower’s spiral staircase was “considered to have reached its end of life and in its current form would not satisfy current standards”.

Instead of making it usable again, minor repairs will be made to “retain the structure as a monument” and install 1m and 3m springboards elsewhere around the dive pool.

Original plans showed the council wanted to reinstate diving on the old tower’s 3m platform, and put a 1m springboard in another position.

The council also plans to replace the centre’s outdoor spa pool, built only 11 years ago, and create a storeroom for pumps and filters to service both pools.

Ratepayers Stonnington president Dean Hurlston said the upgrades were unnecessary at a time when businesses and residents were struggling due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

Earlier in the day, he called for the council to put off the spending for 12 months.

“Imagine what (nearly) $4m can do to support people and small businesses right now,” Mr Hurlston said.

“It’s not essential work, certainly not amid Covid-19 and curfews, and its wasteful and inappropriate at this time.”

But councillors disagreed saying it was “essential spending” on community infrastructure and to give users something to look forward to in summer.

Cr Alex Lew said the investment was “worth it for the price of happiness at the moment”.

“This is an important investment in terms of getting this pool open and working in summertime, and it will be great to be out having fun in the sun recovering from what has been the last two years (Covid-19),” he said.

Cr Matthew Koce, a longtime pool supporter, said it was the council’s responsibility to repair the tower despite it being off limits to the public, and to not let it “just rot and crumble”.

Cr Koce said a generation of children had missed out on the thrill of diving at the pool.

“We teach kids to swim at Harold Holt and how to play at the pool, and we should be doing the same for diving,” he said.

“It’s pleasing that its back and a whole new generation is going to be able to have the joy to jump off a diving board at their local municipal pool.”