Graham Condon Recreation and Sport Centre

27 November 2008

The Christchurch City Council is only weeks away from calling tenders for the new indoor pool, sports hall and gym at Papanui - to be called the Graham Condon Recreation and Sport Centre (after former Councillor Graham Condon).

It is expected that construction will start on the $13 million new complex in April next year - with project completion expected in May 2010.

The complex will be built adjacent to Papanui High School, on school grounds the Council will lease from the Ministry of Education.

For many years there has been concern at the lack of aquatic facilities in the north-west sector of the city - an area that has been identified as having greatest need because of the large numbers of young people, older people and low-income families, and an area predicted to experience the greatest population growth in the next 20 years.  The Council’s Aquatic Facilities Plan - designed to meet the city’s aquatic needs for the next 30 years by rolling out new and revamped facilities - paved the way for the development of a Papanui facility  (along with a revamped Jellie Park, a new children’s pool at Pioneer and a proposed new facility for the south west sector of the city).

“With the recent completion and re-opening of the revamped Jellie Park complex, it’s now time to turn our attention to Papanui and the development of the new facility there,” says Michael Aitken, the Council’s General Manager of Community services.

The partnership that we have been working on with Papanui High School will see significant benefits for the school and the wider community.  The school will have exclusive use of the new sports hall during school hours, and the community will have use of the school’s existing sports hall out of school hours.  In addition, the school will have pre-arranged access to the pool.  It’s a win: win partnership that gives both the school and the community access to first class facilities at a reduced cost to ratepayers,” says Mr Aitken.

The new complex will include a new eight-lane, ramped 25-metre indoor swimming pool, a ramped spa pool, learners’ pool, separate toddlers’ pool with wet deck, an indoor sports hall and a new fitness centre.  The complex will be named in memory of Graham Condon, a Christchurch City Councillor from 1998-2007, who was tragically killed in a cycling accident in September last year.  He served as a Shirley-Papanui community board member from 1995 to 1998 and then as a councillor until his accident.

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