Plans have been lodged for a new grandstand at Lambton pool after the 60-year-old seating structure had to be closed due to concrete cancer.
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A temporary tiered stand for up to 320 spectators was recently installed ahead of school swimming carnivals, with work to start on a permanent structure at the end of the pool season.
Ward 3 Labor councillor Peta Winney-Baartz said it was hoped construction would be complete in time for the following season.
The new stand will be the same size as the old structure at 75-metres long with six tiers and capacity to seat more than 700 people.
A new feature will be accessible seating options and viewing platforms catering to wheelchairs and prams.
"[It will be] a much better and more user friendly design for all the people that come to the centre as well as the ability to store plant and equipment and extend the life of those kinds of things as well," Cr Winney-Baartz said.
Pool users welcomed the announcement, but are frustrated it took until now for action to be taken. The stand closed towards the end of the 2021/22 pool season.
"It has been gradually deteriorating," Lambton Residents Group chairperson Angela Smith said. "It's good to see council are coming to the party. The pool is so well used by the community.
"They let it go so long. It could have been done a long time ago."
Eric Brooker from Hunter Diving said council had known about grandstand issues for years, with his group asked to move their items out of storage in the stand more than a decade ago due to structural problems.
The announcement came after local groups united in an alliance to advocate for the pool's restoration.
"The closure this year of the grandstand due to concrete cancer, which council had known about for about a decade, proves that investment into the future of the pool cannot be delayed and must be a top priority of City of Newcastle," the We Love Lambton Pool Alliance wrote to council in December.
Cr Winney-Baartz said Lambton pool was a similar age to others in the region.
"Other LGA's right near us are having issues where their pools are closed," she said. "Our pool strategy is currently under preparation with staff. It will be drafted and brought to council at some stage during the first half of this year.
"We are going to have to really strategically manage all the pools because these issues are going to keep coming up.
"This grandstand has reached the end of its life. It has been managed for many years and it's got to the point where it just needs to come down and be replaced. And I'm really happy that we've been able to put that into our budget."
Detailed design is still being finalised, but it is expected the new stand will cost in the vicinity of $1 million.
The temporary grandstand, which cost $76,000 before GST and footings, will be repurposed once the new permanent structure is complete.
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Sage Swinton
Sage Swinton is a news reporter who was born and bred in the Hunter. She has been with the Newcastle Herald since June 2020, and covers Newcastle council as well as other general news.
Sage Swinton is a news reporter who was born and bred in the Hunter. She has been with the Newcastle Herald since June 2020, and covers Newcastle council as well as other general news.
