The Santa Cruz Town Hall, supported by a feasibility report carried out in 2018, refuses to regain the Ofra’s pool in which the Paralympic medalist began in swimming Michelle alonso and what’s up 15 years in ruins. The main argument that motivates the current lack of support for rehabilitation is that, although the City Council would not be the one to pay for the half million euros of the work, if it were carried out it would be “unfeasible” for the municipal coffers to allocate 40,000 euros per year to its maintenance.
In the same document that DIARIO DE NOTIOS has had access to, a alternative option more economical: pay for the public transport of students affected by the closure of the pool to another nearby facility, that of the Las Retamas Sports Center. The cost of this transport as well as the rental of the pool and the hiring of a monitor was estimated at 20,000 euros per year.
Another argument given is that near the facility there are two swimming pools: the one at the Las Retamas Sports Center (municipal resource) and the one at the Santa Cruz-Ofra Sports Complex (island resource).
The same document only offers transportation alternatives for students from the two educational centers that connect with the pool in ruins, the CEIP Las Delicias and the IES Virgen de La Candelaria. Thus, the engineer calculates how many hours those students would need the pool within their school day and values that the most economical option is to take them by school transport to another.
However, the report does not contemplate that the Las Delicias pool can be used by the more than 40,000 residents of the Ofra-Costa Sur district, as was the case in the past, since according to the engineer this would mean the City Council face additional costs such as hiring security personnel as well as lifeguards during non-school hours.
“Taking into account that the space occupied by the pool can be used for another sports space that involves an investment, lower operating and maintenance costs, the service rental proposal seems the best option”, the document concludes.
