Swimming lessons continue despite the Central Otago District Council (CODC) reducing the days and hours of operation at the Ranfurly Pool.

Council announced it would shorten pool hours by closing at 6pm instead of 8pm due to a staff shortage.

The pool will also be closed on Thursdays and Sundays.

Council parks and recreation manager Gordon Bailey said the Council was aware the changes would disappoint many people, but as the pool was about to lose two of its four employees, it had to reduce opening hours.

“Ranfurly Pool needs a minimum of four staff members to operate the pool seven days a week – that’s two qualified lifeguards, and two assistants for reception and cleaning.

“Unfortunately, we are now losing two staff to go to university.

"This leaves one qualified, and one assistant to operate the pool.”

Council has shortened the opening hours based on numbers; in the past two weeks, the pool had averaged two swimmers a night after 6pm.

Thursdays and Sundays were chosen as rostered days off.

Swimming lessons, which take place during the week, took priority, to ensure children did not miss out on their water safety education.

“This is a very difficult situation and I believe we have come up with the best we can do to meet the needs of the schools and the learn to swim lessons, as well as the public and the swim club in Ranfurly.”

As a small rural centre, staffing had always been a challenge in Ranfurly, he said.

Despite intensive advertising between October and Christmas, the Council had not been able to recruit staff, and due to the training involved, any recent suitable candidates would not be work-ready in time.

Ranfurly Pool is scheduled to be open 144 days during summer for lap training and public supervised sessions.

The staff shortage meant the pool would be closed only 18 days.

However, that could change if additional pool crew were available, Gordon said.

“We’d really encourage people to train as a lifeguard, or for suitably qualified people to come forward or suggest people in their community.

"It would be great to think we could grow a more sustainable workforce so that the Ranfurly Pool can keep delivering this service to its community.”

In other swimming pool updates, the Alexandra Pool will be closed to the public on February 11 for the Dunstan High School swimming sports, from 8am to 3pm.

More information on Central Otago swimming pools can be found here.