Palmerston North’s three public pools, and two public paddling pools, are now closed in order to stay ahead in protecting our community in the rapidly evolving Covid-19 situation.

The decision to close The Lido, Freyberg and Splashhurst was made with our operators, Community Leisure Management (CLM).

The Victoria Esplanade and Memorial Park paddling pools will also be emptied.

Council Chief Executive, Heather Shotter, says the decision is another sensible step Council is taking to keep our community safe.

“We’d hoped to be able to keep the pools open so our community had a place for exercise or for leisure but to do that we’d have to implement very strict measures that we believe would have been a deterrent for visitors. We, therefore, made the prudent decision to close the pools for the health and wellbeing of our employees and visitors.”

She says Council and CLM are now having discussions about how they could jointly offer exercise programmes for our residents while following Ministry of Health guidelines.

Ms Shotter is encouraging people to get outside and enjoy the city’s beautiful scenery instead.

“All of our parks, walkways and playgrounds remain open, so we’d encourage our residents to try somewhere new to exercise or enjoy some time outdoors.”

She says Council is, however, recommending that people wash their hands before and after using playgrounds in the city and continue to practice physical distancing.

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