Committee decides to vest Roxburgh pool in Council

The Ida MacDonald Roxburgh Pool Punawai Ora committee has formally agreed to vest the pool to the Central Otago District Council, which will officially take place on 1 July this year.

At a special meeting in Roxburgh (Thursday 22 May 2025), the pool committee decided to proceed with the vesting, citing staffing and financial challenges, which was part of the Council’s recent 2025-34 Long-term Plan consultation.

Ten attended the pool committee meeting; R Kristel, S Kelly, T Welsh, V Richards, R Gunn, M Pullar, N Dalley, J Moore, (and S Feinerman and C Buckley via phone).

Three members of the Teviot Valley Community Board were also present, Deputy Chair Mark Jessop, Gill Booth and Curtis Pannett.

Eight voted for the vesting and two against - Dalley and Richards.

The Ida MacDonald Roxburgh Pool Punawai Ora Deputy Chair Rick Kristel said the group was comfortable with its decision.

“We focused on the issue of safety of the swimmers and not putting them at risk, and the liability of the committee if rules were not followed, and we believe this is the best outcome for everyone to maintain full use of the pool.”

In the district-wide Long-term Plan consultation, the Central Otago community was asked whether Council should take on the management of the pool to ensure its sustainability, because of the staffing and financial issues of running the community facility. Deliberations took place last Wednesday (21 May 2025).

Option A, supporting Council ownership and management, was selected by 64.8% of respondents, while 35.2% chose Option B, opposing Council ownership. Option A was favoured due to the perception that Council ownership would ensure sustainability and broader community access, while Option B reflected a desire for community control and concerns about potential rate increases. Overall, the feedback indicated a community grappling with balancing the benefits of Council support against the desire for local autonomy and financial responsibility for the pool.

Teviot Valley Community Board Chair Norm Dalley, who was also at the pool committee meeting, who spoke in the public forum at Council last Wednesday, said it was the Board’s belief that it was not in the community’s interest to divest the pool, and while it did support the divestment going into the LTP initially, the issue had been causing considerable angst in the community.

This generated lively discussion amongst councillors, who believed this had to be a decision made by the present pool committee about whether they wanted to divest the pool or not, and that the Council needed to be able vote on it so that the rates could be struck.

Mr Dalley believed the new committee had not had enough time to consider other possibilities.

Bearing all of this in mind, the Council agreed to give the committee until today (Monday 26 May) to decide whether they wanted to go ahead with vesting the pool.