In my letterbox today

Dear Resident

Machinery was moved on site at Sockburn Pool this morning to demolish the closed facility and begin the process of creating a new park for use by the local community.

[That does explain the apparently randomly-placed pile of gear, accompanied by a single cone and sign, on the corner as I walked the dogs this morning.]

Demolition follows Council’s decision in June 2006 to close the facility when it adopted the Aquatic Facilities Plan as part of the 2006-16 LTCCP process. Council made this decision only after extensive public consultation.

[I don't think any of us thought they were going to rebuild the facility, although I did like the rumour that briefly circulated a year or so ago, of a private development replacing the ex-recreation centre with a Korean baths complex. And at least no-one lay down in the paths of the machinery, as they did when the Edgeware pools were closed across town. We keep our civic emotions reigned in these parts.]

The Aquatic Facilities Plan is the first city-wide plan that looks at Christchurch’s need for the next 30 years, developing a network of facilities that provide residents with year-round access to recreational aquatic facilities for a healthy, active lifestyle.

[In 30 years I'll be 62, harvestmother's current age. What will my opinion concerning "recreational aquatic facilities", or indeed a "healthy, active lifestyle" be then? Pass the gin, grandchild?]

Sockburn Pool reached the end of its useful lifespan in 2004/05 when the cost of maintenance outweighed the benefits of keeping the pool open. Simply, the pool was old, expensive to maintain and in need of significant on-going repairs to keep it open.

Patronage had almost halved in five years, from 40 000 admissions in 1999/2000 to 22 964 in 2004/5. Correspondingly, the cost per swim rose from $3.56 to $16. During this time, Council spent more than $355 000 on plant, building, equipment and asset maintenance and $40 000 in advertising in an attempt to increase patronage.

[What would a $16 swim feel like? At the very least, it should be undertaken while wearing a sparkly bathing cap.

I have been guilty, since moving back into the neighbourhood, of not patronising the pool. As much as I had selected happy memories of swimming there as a child, it was indeed old, bakingly hot in summer and still very much a kids' pool; not somewhere that a lone woman, nearly d'un certain age, would electively lounge, despite being two minutes' walk away.]

Unfortunately, shorter, cooler summers had already seen many Sockburn customers shun outdoor pools in favour of indoor facilities, the refurbished Wharenui Pool and the new Pioneer Leisure Centre.

[Would locals really drive across the motorway to go swimming at Pioneer? I suppose so, if their children were insistent enough.

I wonder if there's data on the shorter, cooler summers, or if it's that the person who drafted this letter remembers their youth, as I do, in a endless UV-saturated haze. My first reaction on reading this was, aha! So it is true!]

Sockburn Pool has now been closed for almost 18 months, the site having sat unused during this time.

[Oh how I loathe "having/being + perfect participle + past tense" as a usage replacing a full stop and past tense. More concretely, the lack of grafitti and vandalism on the site, considering how many kids pass it on their way to school, is a marvel of citizens' restraint.]

In July, Council considered options for the use of the land and decided to retain it as open space. Officers have today proceeded to implement this decision, demolishing the main pool and diving pool by perforating the tanks, collapsing the concrete walls and filling the holes with soil from on site. Associated on-site buildings are also being demolished then the site will be levelled, covered in topsoil and planted in grass. This work will take a few days to complete and I apologise in advance for any noise or dust pollution.

[They can do all that in a few days, without explosives? The description of the process puts me in mind of an autopsy, or perhaps a burial.

I jumped into that diving pool once, off the lower board and under duress, wearing a life jacket as part of compulsory life-saving skills training at intermediate school. I was told off for releasing one arm from the safety position. I was extremely frightened and ashamed of my fear. Harvestbro could leap into the air before plummeting to the surface of the water.]

The toddlers’ pool and adjacent barbecue area will be retained to create an area for families to enjoy picnics throughout the summer.

[Sometimes when we were nine or so we would wade into the toddlers' pool just to unsettle the toddlers, as we were unsettled by older teenagers. Rarely did it work.]

After the demolition work is complete, the site will handed [sic] to Greenspace which will work through the Community Board to consult on the use of the land for recreational and leisure activities. Upper Riccarton-Sockburn has been identified as an area with a lack of parks for the neighbourhood.

[I'm glad they noticed. Sockburn is a corridor of streets with a cellphone tower and giant roundabout, and Upper Riccarton its genteeler, larger offshoot, the part of the suburbs that used to be Riccarton before the mall relocated the name. It's largely somewhere you drive through, not to. A greenspace in which one could have a picnic and perhaps do a little lead training with one's puppies would be welcome. What has historically been called "Sockburn Park" is really no more than the sharp-grassed strip in front of the barbed-wire fences of the pool. Few would electively sit there, except, perhaps, to wait for the bus.]

Sockburn residents have access to Wharenui Pool, Pioneer Leisure Centre, Halswell Pool and the redeveloped Jellie Park when it re-opens mid next year. This summer, the community can swim outdoors at Villa Maria College pool during Janaury and under the Aquatic Facilities Plan a new indoor aquatic facility is planned for the south-west sector of Christchurch within the next 10 years.

[Thank you for thinking of us, Aquatic Facilities Plan. Do the good staff and students of Villa really want the community clogging their pool during January? It is, I suppose, an honourable enough tradition: most of my childhood summers were spent not at the Sockburn pool--where one had to pay--but at the smaller primary school pool, to which pupils' families could get a key, a little further down the road. Harvestdad shouted off the teenagers attempting to scale the fences for a free swim.]