Harold Holt Swim Centre closed indefinitely with renovations planned
It’s the famous pool named after a PM who drowned. And now a veteran swimmer is frustrated renovations — once coronavirus is over — could mean he won’t be able to get back in there until summer.
Inner East
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A swimmer who’s been doing laps at the Harold Holt Swim Centre for more than 40 years fears he won’t be able to get back in the water until early next year.
The historic Glen Iris centre’s outdoor 50m lap pool has been off limits since the coronavirus outbreak in March.
Stonnington Council took the opportunity to drain the pool in May to prepare for retiling works as part of its $7.57 million centre-wide refurbishment.
The council has allocated $1.6 million for the works and Stonnington Leader understands the pool was last retitled about seven years ago.
Glen Iris’ Michael Maloney, 81, said he had been frustrated at not being able to use the lap pool and the need to carry out more works on it.
He said the council’s decision to drain the pool meant he was unable to use it before the reintroduction of coronavirus restrictions last week.
“I use it every day and its terribly frustrating, obviously they can’t open it now, but it could’ve been open for the last four weeks,” Mr Maloney said.
“How long it takes to retile it, who knows, they (council) say until summer but I’m not holding my breath.”
The council’s spokesman, Jim Corden, said it hoped the centre would be fully reopened in time for summer and a contractor for the retiling works was expected to be appointed in the coming weeks.
In other news, the council decided at its July 6 meeting to reinstate diving at the pool and will build a tower containing 1m and 3m springboards.
The council will develop a case study for a combined outdoor dive pool and 25m lap pool as part of its refurbishment.
Diving has been absent from the centre since 2003 when its old tower was shut down due to safety fears.
It remains off limits but is heritage protected and will be incorporated into the centre’s refurbishment.
Mr Maloney said the combined pool and the new diving tower would be a worthy addition to the centre.
“It’s not for me personally, I’m not going to be doing any diving, but it’s a good idea for sure,” he said.
“It (the pool) would also be great for kids to learn to swim in there and they can maybe play water polo as well.”
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