John MacDonald: Hotpool sell-off idea leaves me cold

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald

If there’s one city council facility in Christchurch that never seems to have a bad word said about it, it’s the He Puna Taimoana hot pools at New Brighton.

I would actually say that the pools are one of Christchurch’s great post-earthquake success stories.

What’s more, they don’t run at a loss. How often can you say that about anything run by a local council?

Tell that to city councillor Aaron Keown, though. Because he’s come up with this idea of selling the hot pools to try and get some cash in the door, so the council can avoid increasing rates by about nine percent next year.

I’m telling you now. It would be the wrong thing to do. And I don't think it matters whether you’ve been there or not to know how daft an idea this is. Because those pools have become one of Christchurch’s absolute gems.

I haven’t actually been there for a dip myself. But I know plenty of people who have - and they all rave about it.

In fact, I was talking to someone this morning who went there for the first time just a few weeks ago. He described it as “exceptional”.

And if you’re hearing this and thinking ‘oh must give it a go’. Today is your lucky day. Because I checked the online booking system earlier and there are spaces available right now.

It’s your lucky day because, sometimes, the hot pools can be booked out for days - if not weeks - in advance. That’s how popular they are.

That was one of the many things that this person I was talking to today loved about going there recently. It wasn’t crowded. It was very well controlled. That’s a booking system for you.

So why is Aaron Keown even entertaining the idea of selling off the pools? It’s because the council is really struggling to find ways of avoiding that nine percent rates increase next year.

It’s not the only idea that’s being thrown around the council table. But it’s the only one that I’m dead against. Councillor Sara Templeton, for example, has suggested they could sell-off the Lichfield Street carpark.

They can do what they want with that, as far as I’m concerned. But leave the hot pools out of this conversation.

Because not only is it a success story now. It’s been a success story since it opened four-and-a-half years ago.

It was late May 2020 and the council was predicting that it wouldn’t make any money in its first year. It was executing the pools to run at an $886,000 loss.

But it went nuts. And, instead of losing money, it made money. In its first year it turned a profit of $109,000. How many council facilities do that? Not just in Christchurch, but anywhere.

They’d hoped to get 75,000 people through the gates. But they had about 120,000 visitors instead. And in March this year, the 500,000th visitor went through the door.

At the time, the manager of the pools - Merryn Skipper - said the pools had had a massive positive impact on the local community.

She said, since the pools opened, Eftpos spending in the New Brighton area has increased on average by 200,000 transactions a month. Which, all up, equate to about 9.4 million extra Eftpos transactions in the area since May 2020.

It’s a gold mine! So where is councillor Aaron Keown coming from with this idea of his?

He reckons Ngāi Tahu Tourism would be right up for buying the pools. He says: “With another operator it might be better for the area. Especially if we throw them a consent to build a nice big hotel across the road.”

Where I think that idea falls over, is the fact that 85 percent of the people who go there are locals.

Either way, if the council wants to avoid that nine percent rates increase, it needs to come up with other ideas. Flogging-off the hot pools shouldn't be one of them.

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.