Taradale Community Pool | Brendon’s pro-bono work

The 25m five lane indoor heated pool facility located at Taradale Primary School, Napier was forced to close in December 2016 after a structural assessment of the roof structure deemed the structural portals to be below the building code standards.  A valued community asset in a city short on indoor pool space the community rallied behind the reopening push and set up a Charitable Trust to lead the project, determined the appropriate replacement roof solution, fundraised $1.3million, and lead the project to opening.

In February 2021, the pool reopened and is seeing approximately 1,500 children per annum from five local schools complete the Water Skills for Life Programme, delivers learn to swim for over 500 children each year, hosts school swimming sports, and is used by the local swim and surf clubs in the morning and evenings.

Brendon was the inaugural Chairperson of the Taradale Community Pool Trust and remains a Trustee today. He was the fundraising lead and heavily involved with the “Fix-it Team”.

The pool was originally constructed in 1945-47 thanks to community efforts and it was extended, enclosed and roofed in the 80s, again by the community. It still has the original reticulation system and an under-specification filtration system so a full upgrade is the current project the Trust is working on. Again, Brendon took the lead in the fundraising, and he secured the $620,000 required for the project.

The pool remains a valuable community asset delivering water safety and swimming skills to the children of Napier.