For a second year, Sawtell and Woolgoolga 25 metre swimming pools will open weekdays at 6am and close for the day from 1pm, with no Learn to Swim programs available at either pool.

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For beachside towns with strong Surf Life Saving clubs, the pools serve as a safe place to learn to swim and to train for swimming proficiency tests.

Yet the opening times cannot adequately accommodate these programs.

Before the 2023-24 season, both pools were thriving, with club and social swimming in the afternoons before a closing time of 6pm.

The opening hours also preclude the Special Olympics club from using the pool.

One concerned parent who’s been connected to the Sawtell and Woolgoolga swimming pools for the past eight years through the Learn to Swim program, said she’s seen the pools go through “some drastic and disheartening changes”.

“I’ve seen both pools operating as a fantastic, vibrant community hub, each with a highly successful Learn to Swim program, youth squads and adult squads,” the mother, who chose not to be named, told the News Of The Area.

Like local swimming groups and other parents, she thought Council saw the pool as an asset for beachside communities.

“But what is happening is just mind boggling and has left so many parents like me scratching our heads as to how and why.”

The residents are frustrated that admission prices have risen but opening times have been restricted, and are seeking answers from Council.

“How do you not see the importance of having pools open to the community in an area surrounded by the ocean?”

Margaret Markham from Special Olympics Australia North Coast, told NOTA that its team had been training at the Sawtell swimming pool on Thursdays from 2pm to 3pm since October 2017.
The squad numbers between seventeen and 20 swimmers.

“In May 2020, the City of Coffs closed the Sawtell pool for redevelopment, which in turn got tabled,” Ms Markham said.

“Our swim coach managed to hire lanes from the indoor Aquatic Centre on Park Beach Road in Coffs.

“However, the athletes find breathing hard in the enclosed environment and their sensitive skin reacts to the indoor pool water.

“Our squad numbers plummeted to between five and seven swimmers, due to being in an enclosed swimming environment.”

The group has been lobbying to return to the Sawtell pool and was hopeful that when the 2024-25 opening times were released, that they extended until 5.30pm on Tuesday and Thursday.
“We were all set to return for the season,” Ms Markham said.

“Arrangements were made until Council reversed its decision on opening hours and released notification on 25 September that pools would close at 1pm weekdays.”

In response, a spokesperson for CoCH told NOTA: “The 2024/2025 Sawtell and Woolgoolga Pool opening hours are the same as 2023-24”.

By Andrea FERRARI