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The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times
Megan Doherty

Save Phillip Pool group is holding a pool party on Sunday - all welcome

The Save Phillip Pool group is hosting a pool party there at 3.30pm on Sunday, March 3.

Supporters of the pool believe it is living on borrowed time, the site being landbanked by owner Geocon until it can build units on the site and put in a 25-metre pool as part of any complex, meeting the ACT government's planning requirements.

Fiona Carrick, former president of the Woden Valley Community Council who is now considering organising a group of Independent candidates to stand at the ACT election in October, said it was a "second-rate solution" for the large outdoor Phillip site, with a 50-metre pool, to be replaced by a 25-metre indoors pool.

"Phillip Pool is a 50m publicly accessible pool, the only one in the Woden Valley, Weston Creek and the Inner South," she said.

Fiona Carrick (left) at a protest at the pool in 2021 by locals concerned about its future after it did not open for two summers. Picture by Dion Georgopoulos

[In 2023], the site was sold to a high-density developer, Geocon. The new planning laws allow the replacement of the existing ice rink, outdoor 50m pool and children's pools with residential towers that include an indoor 25m pool, warm pool, children's pool and some outdoor space."

Ms Carrick urged all supporters of the Phillip pool to attend the pool party on Sunday from 3.30pm to 5pm.

"Save Phillip Pool is a group of locals who love our public pool and want to find a way to keep it open into the future for our growing population," she said.

"We have over 30 residential towers and significant densification in the suburbs - the 50m pool is needed."

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