The City of London will be opening a new spray pad to the north end of the city before the end of summer and is in talks of building a seventh indoor pool.
Currently, there are 10 outdoor pools in the city, nine wading pools and 18 spray pads throughout the city. Generally, outdoor pools are open daily, weather dependent, but this year they opened early due to the heat. In June, select outdoor pools were open on weekends only to help Londoners to beat the heat.
Outdoor pools cost an average of $100,000 to $120,000 per summer to maintain and operate. Since 2002, the city has invested about $ 15 million to rebuild, renovate or rehabilitate the outdoor pool space.
“Our infrastructure is in good condition,” says the director of recreation and sport with the City of London, JP McGonigle. “Certainly we still have two or three left that we are currently working on to make sure we can increase their useful life for the community.”
There’s been a push to build year-round facilities, but this doesn’t mean the city is abandoning the ten existing outdoor pools.
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“We build these spaces so people get attached and build memories, so we certainly use our amenities and spaces to give people lifetime memories,” McGonigle says. “It’s never an easy convo to have about them when you have to talk about retiring assets.”
Last year, the oldest outdoor pool in the city, Thames Park Pool, was closed for ongoing structural and infrastructure concerns. Members of the council suggested to the council that it should be decommissioned and have funds reallocated to other amenities. Thames Park Pool was the only 50-metre outdoor pool in the city and was the busiest outdoor pool that the city operated. Members of Old South created a petition asking the city to keep the pool in service and make the necessary repairs, but it remains closed for the 2024 season.
Now that splash pads have been rising in popularity, there are some questions about the future of outdoor pools.
“Our services are guided by our parks and rec master plan which was approved by council in 2019 and is going through an update in 2024 as it reaches the five-year interval so we can update population projections in the city and participation trends and other things,” McGonigle says. “But in our current master plan there is no recommendations for outdoor pools.”
Instead, the master plan has a focus of year-round programs to hit population goals. Indoor pools are built at an average rate of 1 for every 65,000 residents, and spray pads at an average rate of 1 for every 4,000. There are recommendations for a seventh indoor pool at the next community centre build in the northwest, and staff are directed to assess demand for an eighth in the centre of the city.
“Theres also a 19th spray pad coming later in the summer in the north development of Foxpark,” McGonigle says.
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