FUTUREPROOFING OUR COMMUNITY SPORT, AQUATIC AND LEISURE CENTRES
12 Apr 2024
Safeguarding community assets for future generations is an issue that as an industry we need to be thinking about now in order to futureproof community leisure facilities for future generations.
A recent ABC News article featured Wingham Swimming Pool in NSW, explaining how a local community group was looking to take over management of the centre because Council couldn’t afford the upkeep of a crumbling asset. This prompts two questions:
- How are we going to fund community swimming pools for the next generation to learn how to swim and enjoy our Aussie psyche?
- Why are we continuing to build so many swimming pools when many people in the community don’t use them?
Royal Life Saving Society Australia (RLSSA), the peak body for drowning prevention, published its State of Aquatic Facility Infrastructure report in 2023. It showed, in the next decade up to 40 percent of local government-owned aquatic facilities will need serious refurbishment or outright replacement, at a cost of $8 billion.
With so many pools built in the 1950/1960s needing to be replaced, RLSSA is calling for a National Aquatic Infrastructure Strategy, and prompting us to think about the economic, social and health benefits provided by pools. Similar approaches have been taken in Europe and Canada, with a shift in thinking allowing communities to develop a greater appreciated for the benefits pools bring. Australia also needs to think differently.
This year the National Sports & Physical Activity Convention, in partnership with IAKS (NSC | IAKS 2024), has a strong focus on futureproofing, with four key presentations to consider.
THE HEALTH AGENDA
How can physical exercise and participation make a difference to the health of the nation?
John Oxley, CEO of Stockport Active (UK), Dr Henry Bernard Baptiste, Director of the Mauritius Sports Council and Michelle Murray, Executive Manager, Health Promotion Systems at VicHealth will explore this, together with a panel of experts, to unpack what it means for their sectors.
SUSTAINABLE DESIGN FOR THE NEXT GENERATION OF COMMUNITY FACILITIES
Due to imposed legislation, Europe is becoming a leader in the thinking on this subject. Marc Riemann, Manager Aquatics & Leisure Centres, Cologne City Council and Mike Hall, Partner at FaulknerBrowns Architects, as well as Sport New Zealand’s Climate Change Lead, Jo Wiggins, explore the need to embrace generational thinking.
TO CONTRACT OR NOT TO CONTRACT
Can community impact be achieved by contracting our community sports and leisure facilities?
A debate on this subject will take place with John Oxley, CEO of Stockport Active; Alison Dixon, CEO Western Leisure Services and Kim Critchley, Merri-bek City Council arguing the case for inhouse packaging. The alternative view is headed by Gar Holohan, Founder and Chair Aura Holohan Group, Carolyn Morris, CEO, YMCA Victoria and Nick Cox, CEO Belgravia Leisure.
WORKSHOPS
Whether contracting out or managing internally, it is obvious that as an industry we need to be more creative and innovative in how we futureproof our community leisure facilities for future generations. This will be further explored through the NSC | IAKS 2024 workshops:
- Creative thinking for futureproofing community leisure facilities
- Strengthening the financial viability of aquatic and leisure facilities
- Strengthening equity, safety, capability and pathways
There are no easy answers for the challenge ahead, except that we can’t make the same mistakes with the way we design, fund and manage current facilities over their whole lifecycles. Surely, it’s time to design facilities so that, like hotels, they have the flexibility to receive a significant refurbishment every decade. The narrative needs to change about who the facilities are being designed for and what impact they are intended to make.
If we really want to create a positive impact to the health of the community at large, there is very limited rationale for building an indoor and outdoor 50-metre pool in the inner metro of any capital city, with the number of pools already in place. More strategic thinking is needed from government, the consultants providing the advice, and the community consultation method we use.
Poor strategic decisions in the planning of new facilities cannot be corrected once open, even though some local governments believe that by contracting this out it is possible.
The need for an ‘Industry Think Tank’ has never been stronger between all levels of government and all peak bodies.
GO Fit: Madrid. Integrating PhD students into Europe’s GO Fit sport and leisure facilities to study health impact of programs. Source Martin Sheppard