The Phillip Swimming and Ice Skating Centre’s 50m pool’s days appear numbered. Photo: Phillip Swimming and Ice Skating Centre, Facebook.
A group of Woden residents are hoping to make a splash with a pool party protest on Sunday at the Phillip Swimming and Ice Skating Centre.
Save Phillip Pool wants the current facility – the only 50m pool in the Woden Valley, Weston Creek and the Inner South – to stay open to serve the growing population in the town centre and district and the 3:30 pm event aims to rally support.
It wants to send a message to the ACT Government and the site owner that booming Woden needs a full-size pool.
Spokesperson Fiona Carrick, who is organising an independent ticket for the ACT election and may run herself, said the current 50m pool was set to go in any new development planned by the current owner, property giant Geocon which bought the centre in December 2022.
Geocon is developing the massive WOVA mixed use development across Launceston Street and has long-term plans to redevelop the site but the lease requires it to retain a pool.
Ms Carrick said the new planning laws allowed Geocon to replace the existing ice rink, outdoor 50m pool and children’s pools with residential towers that included an indoor 25m pool, warm pool, children’s pool and some outdoor space.
But with more than 30 residential towers and significant densification in the suburbs feeding a population boom in the district, the larger pool was needed, she said.
“The Stromlo Leisure Centre [in the Molonglo Valley] is supposed to be our indoor pool but it is difficult to access by public transport,” Ms Carrick said.
The shadow of redevelopment hangs over the Phillip Swimming and Ice Skating Centre. Photo: Region.
She said successive government policies, including support for a new ice sports centre in Tuggeranong, had contributed to the Phillip site being run-down and made less viable.
“Geocon bought the site with no transparency about the entry pricing required to make a profit, and who will subsidise the pool if it does not?” Ms Carrick said.
Ms Carrick said the government policy of encouraging developers to provide community facilities had failed in Woden, which had lost most of its recreational facilities over the years.
“The Woden Town Centre is a centrally located hub that is accessible by public transport from across the region,” she said.
“However, residential towers now replace Woden’s basketball stadium, bowling greens, tennis courts, YMCA and gymnasium. The pitch n putt, pool and ice rink are zoned for towers too, forcing people into their cars to drive to other districts for these activities.”
This had left Woden without plans for a 50m pool, an indoor sports stadium or an arts centre.
Ms Carrick said the forgotten south had missed out for too long.
“It is time for the government to plan for an equitable distribution of social infrastructure and prioritise all Canberrans, caring for all our people and communities,” she said.
Comment was sought from Geocon.
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