Mount Aspiring College (MAC) has been granted approval to use the land where the former Wanaka public swimming pool sits, on Plantation Road, for relocatable buildings.

The pool is on recreation reserve land administered by the Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) and at a council meeting last week the QLDC agreed to lease the site temporarily to MAC for three years, with the right to renew the lease for a further two terms of three years by mutual agreement.

MAC is in the process of redevelopment and the pool site, immediately adjacent to the college’s gymnasium, is considered an ideal reuse of the disused 6441m2 site.

MAC has indicated it will not use the former pool building but will be placing four portable classrooms (12m x 6m), connected by decking, and changing rooms (23m x 8m), on the northern side of the old pool building.

Also MAC’s Block R (18mx8m) will be relocated to the pool site and installed in the pool’s carpark beside the gymnasium.

The Ministry of Education (MoE) has applied to the council for building and resource consents applicable for these relocatable buildings but MAC has also been given permission to use the site in the interim for construction storage and car parking.

The portable buildings will be similar to those which already have been installed within the eastern playing fields of the school’s grounds.

The former swimming pool, which was considered an earthquake risk and had undergone earthquake strengthening in 2015, was closed in June 2018 when the new public pool, in Three Parks, was opened.

At this stage there is no plan to demolish the old pool building but MoE said demolition might be requested in the future if more space is needed for teaching and administration buildings.

The council regarded the application to reuse the site as a win-win as it enabled the reserve land to be temporarily but purposefully used for community education while giving time for the council to identify a long-term use.

PHOTO: Supplied