In the council’s draft annual plan, pool lane hire for club members rises from a ‘charitable’ rate of $6.75 per lane per hour to $10 an hour.
As a result, club hire fees would rise from about $28,000 a year to $42,000, which has to be paid by swimmers - and their families - according to how much they use the pool.
On top of that, junior members already pay $179 a year to access the Events Centre’s Alpine Aqualand pool.
The club’s immediate past president, David Marriott, says council fees alone, with the proposed increase, would total more than $1000 a year, on average, on top of coaching fees, meaning the average club membership’s $2500-plus a year — ‘‘a sum well beyond the resources of most families’’.
‘‘If you’ve got two kids, you probably can’t afford to have them both swimming unless you’re reasonably wealthy.’’
With the club’s existing fees, Marriott says the 50-or-so-member club — which trains competitive swimmers — already struggles to attract members graduating from the council’s much-cheaper learn-to-swim programme.
In fact, he believes they’re already over-charged by the council, and was going to propose it abolish lane fees altogether.
‘‘We accept that’s probably a pipe-dream at the moment, but we were trying to point out how different it was here to anywhere else.
‘‘In Dunedin, for example, the clubs pay a lane charge at Moana Pool but it’s peppercorn stuff, and that’s because the Dunedin City Council see themselves as wanting to support those clubs.’’
Swim club pours cold water on fee hike
In Auckland, he points out children 16 and under, including those in swim clubs, have free access to council pools ‘‘as a means of actively supporting and encouraging water safety’’.
‘‘We’re surrounded by water, we should be pushing water safety.
‘‘Queenstown Lakes District Council should be viewing the swimming club as a partner, ‘‘not as a customer they can make money from’’.
Marriott says you get the situation where an adult, having just paid an entrance fee for the Alpine Aqualand pool, is swimming for a far cheaper rate than the youngster in the lane next to them, ‘‘which is just nonsense’’.
If the council’s increased charge goes through, he fears swimming will be far less attractive to children compared to other sports where they pay little or nothing to use council fields.
‘‘Why is swimming being penalised?’’
He says membership plunged when the pool was closed for an extended period due to ceiling repairs, followed closely by Covid closures and restrictions.
He warns if numbers drop off due to rising fees, the club’s future would be in doubt as it needs sufficient members to afford a pro coach.
Marriott points out their coach, Lauren Taylor, also assists council’s learn-to-swim programme and helps local schools run their swim meets.
He’s also concerned council’s planning to raise the cost of pool hire for swim meets, meaning they’d have to raise entry fees.
In its annual plan submission, the club states it’d be ‘‘extremely sad’’ if the club was forced to close or for swimming to become a ‘‘sport only the wealthy could participate in competitively in Queenstown’’.
‘Doesn’t sit comfortably’
Long-time councillor Craig ‘Ferg’ Ferguson, himself a former swimming club parent, says ‘‘it certainly concerns me the [lane hire] rise is as steep as it is’’.
The chair of council’s community & services committee, Ferguson says he’ll put in his five cents’ worth when council deliberates on the proposal.
‘‘I think it’s just a bit too steep considering that, not that long ago, we weren’t able to find staff and we had to close the pool down for a period of time, at the weekends.
‘‘So to come out and put the fees up, to that level, doesn’t sit comfortably with me at all.’’
