However, the council says while there is pressure on Moana Pool, it was open to finding solutions with the club that met the needs of divers and aqua joggers.
Diving Ōtākou head coach Connie Deighton said the management of Moana Pool was unusual.
Lanes in the dive pool were often reserved for aqua joggers, halving the amount of boards the club could access and creating a safety hazard.
"It was a bit of shock to see a sport like diving doesn’t have much power when it comes to a diving pool," Miss Deighton said.
"Some days we can only have half of the pool — so we have to choose if we want the platform side or the springboard side.
"We try and do it so we swap each side each week, but you can’t have a fluid session when you can only use half of the diving facility."
The club was eager to address the clash, but the majority of suggestions put to council — like dedicated time for the club’s pool use, or early morning diving sessions — had been turned down, she said.
A council spokesperson acknowledged there was pressure on pool space, but said staff worked hard to manage booking requests from a wide range of groups, including diving.
"Diving is allocated more pool time than any other group of pool users — averaging 14.5 hours a week — and we have recently discussed a range of options with them to increase this."
The dive pool was the facility’s most accessible pool and was best suited to aqua joggers, particularly those with movement limitations, they said.
"We work with diving clubs to ensure they have a mixture of access to the pool’s diving springboards and towers, while the half of the pool they are not using is allocated to aqua jogging."
It was incorrect to suggest the pool was unwilling to meet clubs, the spokesperson said.
Diving Ōtākou committee member Jess Luxton said the council was being short-sighted.
"The access to all of the boards is constantly limited, but yet our roll's increasing," she said.
"There's no other pools in the whole of New Zealand that put aqua joggers into their diving pools."
She rejected the council’s claim it was open to working with the club.
"They didn't build a diving pool for aqua-joggers.
"Services should be there for the health and wellbeing of young people who we want to stick around and stay."
Diving New Zealand performance director Steve Gladding said flexibility was needed.
He had travelled from Auckland to discuss solutions with council staff in December, but was disappointed to have met pool staff and not decision makers.
"We’ve had some communication with DCC staff, but they’re saying they can’t accommodate.
"I didn’t feel we were being treated fairly or even being considered."
The club’s membership had doubled in the past six months. However, the council was reluctant to work with Ōtākou Diving to address the growth, he said.
"It’s not very solution focused. It’s just ‘no, you can’t’."
