A Riverside Swimming Centre representative has hit back at claims that an indoor pool would better suit the facility's planned redevelopment.
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Community consultation is still open to the public for the West Tamar Future Aquatic Facility Report released last year, which indicates the council retains a 33-metre outside pool.
The report has divided public opinion and resulted in the council receiving a number of alternative recommendations from various swimming personalities and water safety organisations.
The most recent of which came from former Olympic bronze medalist Peter Tonkin.
The Australian Swimming Coaches and Teachers Association president attended a council workshop last week in an attempt to demonstrate the benefits an indoor facility, with a 25-metre pool, could provide.
However, while the council did not dismiss the idea and maintained a decision was yet to be made, Riverside Swimming Centre's pool manager Trent Hadley rubbished the notion.
Mr Hadley was of the impression that the five months the pool operated for over the warmer months of the year would generate far more revenue than an indoor pool, which he said would primarily be used for programs and competitive swimming.
He also believed an indoor facility would negatively impact the public and take away from their level of enjoyment over summer, a sentiment which he felt was demonstrated in the results of the community consultation West Tamar Council undertook last year, before publishing the Future Aquatic Facility Report.
"If you build an indoor pool, people won't be able to have the proper summer experience," he said.
Former FINA, the international federation for competitive water sports, technical committee chairman Don Blew disagreed and felt that recreation shouldn't be prioritised over children being taught how to swim properly.
Aside from safety concerns, Mr Blew was also troubled by the lack of a swimming club at the pool.
Riverside Aquatic Club, established in 1968, was a largely successful and well-represented organisation, which catered for swimmers of all abilities and ages until it officially disbanded last year.
Mr Hadley said the club did still exist, and that "club nights" were held at the pool occasionally, although it wasn't registered with Swimming Tasmania, meaning it was unable to participate in any competitions.
"It's sort of in hibernation at the moment," he said.
He conceded the facility not having an indoor pool, meaning the club had to swim out of the facility at St Patrick's College, hurt the club significantly; but said a lack of available coaches was also heavily responsible.
"If we put a good coach in here, the club would be back straight away, we have the numbers for it, but the coaches in Tasmania are few and far between," he said.
Swimming Tasmania chief executive Jamie McIntyre said there were 23 coaches across the six clubs in the North and that three coaching courses were held by the organisation last year, resulting in 18 Tasmanians obtaining qualifications.
Regarding the debate over whether an outdoor or indoor pool should be prioritised at the site, he fell in favour of the latter.
"Outdoor pools are very rarely built these days, especially in Tasmania, and that's evident in the indoor facilities that have been recently constructed at Oatlands, Smithton, Burnie and Devonport," he said.
He said an indoor pool that operated throughout the year would be better suited to facilitate learn-to-swim classes and could potentially ease the backlog of parents trying to enrol their children into lessons.
A recent report commissioned by Swim Australia, the peak industry Body for 600 swim schools, showed that 30 per cent of Tasmanian parents couldn't enrol their children into lessons due to class unavailability.
Surf Life Saving Tasmania chief executive Tony Van Den Enden said those classes were essential, especially after Australia experienced a 20 per cent spike in drownings since the first COVID-19 lockdown two years ago.
"Learn-to-swim programs are vital, and having enough facilities available to run those is important so that children are able to develop those key skills at an early age and develop their water safety awareness and confidence in the water," he said.
That opinion was seconded by Royal Life Saving Society Australia's project manager for Tasmania, Karina Siggins who said water awareness was crucial for everyone in Tasmania.
"We're all living nearby to some form of inland or coastal waterway, even in a house in suburbia there's still the potential threat of a pool or even a bath, so learning to swim is imperative," she said.
"Indoor facilities offer a controlled environment, therefore learn-to-swim programs could take place at any time, on any day."
"Those classes are huge income earners for centres too, so if anyone was looking to build a pool these days, and they had the option of indoor or outdoor, with Tasmania's climate, you'd definitely go for an indoor one."