Petition for outdoor swimming pool instead of white water rafting facility reaches 3,000 signatures

A petition to install an outdoor swimming pool in the city centre instead of a planned white water rafting facility has reached over 3,000 signatures.

Dublin City Council’s planned white water rafting facility on St. George’s Dock has been met with criticism since it was first made public in 2019.

The facility has been mooted as a place for elite athletes and fire personnel to train but a new petition, started by The George’s Dock Lido says that ‘you may have heard about Dublin City Council’s proposal for a €25 million white-water-rafting facility located at George’s Dock. We acknowledge that elite water-sport athletes and the fire-brigade require facilities to train. But we believe that this space, in Dublin’s inner city, is not the right location for this facility.’

It adds that ‘we propose the conversion of the space at George’s Dock into a large, public, outdoor swimming facility, for all Dubliners, accessible to all abilities. George’s Dock is the perfect location for such a proposal.

• Multiple European cities have heated, outdoor swimming pools, accessible to the public, called Lidos. Examples of city-centre Lidos include London, Berlin, Moscow, Vancouver, Sydney and Barcelona.
• An estimated 7% of adults aged 16 and over swim each week in Ireland, equivalent to approximately 230,000 people (ESRI, 2013).
• There are currently no publicly-accessible, open-air swimming pools in Dublin.
• COVID-19 has highlighted the importance of utilising our public spaces as meeting points and locations for exercise.
• The site could accommodate multiple pools, including one Olympic-standard pool. It would be a space for all, with public health benefits.’

The petition has so far reached of 3,000 signatures and you can read it in full here.

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