Tamworth Olympic Pool: what will happen to all that water and why the repairs were a 'necessary' spend

The pool was filled with the precious resource for the first time in more than 18 months in December, but Tamworth Regional Council (TRC) confirmed the facility would be closed for the season, a month early.

Council's sport and recreation manager Paul Kelly told the Leader the pool will not be drained, but will be put into 'winter' mode, after the gates were locked on Sunday night.

The pool was filled with more than one million litres of water in December, after the level at Chaffey Dam climbed to 30 per cent full and when urgent repair works were completed.

In a statement to the Leader, Mr Kelly said the water won't go down the gurgler.

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"Just like we do at all pools, we try to retain as much water as we can to prevent re-filling later in the year," he said.

"There are no planned major works required, so there is no reason to drain the pool."

Mr Kelly said the Kable Avenue pool will inevitably lose water, but "every drop" that can be saved means less water will be needed to fill the pool next season.

"We will 'winterise' the water to try and keep it in as good condition as possible, because once the water drops to a certain level the pumps are unable to be used to re-circulate the water," he said.

Questions were raised by the community about what might happen to the water after TRC announced the pool would close after a short opening season of two-and-a-half months.

Mr Kelly previously told the Leader the decision to shut the pool a month ahead of schedule was due to chilly water temperatures and low visitation numbers - sometimes fewer than 20 people per day.

Scully Park pool will remain open until April 1.

The short swimming season also comes after more than $80,000 was spent getting the town pool up to scratch to reopen after the drought - including remediation works on the pool's crumbling concrete edges.

Councillor Glenn Inglis asked about the spend in a council meeting on Tuesday, before the decision to shut the Olympic pool early was made widely known.

"The Olympic pool remediation works ... I'm curious, does that actually add to the useful life of the pool?" he asked during a conversation about the annual operational plan - budget variation report.

TRC general manager Paul Bennett said the "obvious answer" was yes.

"If we hadn't done it, the pool would have been shut and would have been at the end of its life, so it's certainly helping us to realise the anticipated life, but in terms of extending what we would have expected to be reasonable life, no, it's only a cosmetic safety improvement," he said.

Cr Inglis said he raised the issue because he expected the pool to be up and running "longer than some would like" because funding is yet to be secured for an indoor aquatic centre.

Mr Kelly assured the community that Tamworth Olympic Pool was in good working condition and will open to the public at the start of the next swimming season.

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