'Australian way of life': Can you imagine summer without this pool?

The pool's lessee blames delays and lost income caused by the COVID lockdown for not being able to do the work and open its gates over the summer months.

There are also calls for the government to do more to shore up the future of the facility, which has been used by the community for 50 years, amid fears it will be sold off for more apartment blocks.

And there are further concerns that Labor's promise from the 2020 election to partner with a private provider to build an ice skating rink in Tuggeranong will sound the death knell for the Phillip pool, which is subsidised - and heated - by its adjoining ice skating rink.

A petition this week sponsored by Murrumbidgee Liberal MLA Giulia Jones calls on the government to facilitate opening the Phillip pool this summer, by providing a grant to carry out the maintenance required. The petition also asks that the government help to keep the pool open "until it or another outdoor pool is available and open for the people of Woden for the long-term".

"This is part of the Australian way of life and we don't want to lose that as we evolve this great city," Mrs Jones said.

Lap swimmer Mary Brennan said she believed the government should run the 50-metre Phillip pool as a community asset, just as councils across the region managed to do.

She said if the government was not going to enforce the conditions of the lease, including that it be maintained to a satisfactory level, then the lease should be revoked.

"We see the only option is for government to take the site over and not for it to be developed," Ms Brennan said.

"It seems mad the ice rink would move, given this is the centre of town, but if it is moving, some kind of business could replace it, maybe an IGA. But a condition of that should be that the pool has to be run again."

Ms Brennan said swimming clubs came from far and wide to use the pool while the green space attracted families and teenagers.

"It's so important for mental health, especially right now," she said.

Woden Valley Community Council president Fiona Carrick said it would likely also start its own petition to open the pool this summer.

She said users of the Phillip pool were fearful it would be closed for good to make way for more apartments in the area, which has progressively been stripped of community sporting facilities including basketball arena, bowling greens, pitch 'n' putt course and futsal ground.

If Phillip pool was to close, that would leave no open-air 50-metre pool anywhere on the southside of Canberra.

The council had shared on its Facebook page a video of the 2017 Alfred Deakin High School swimming carnival at the Phillip pool which showed how well it could be used and to emphasise "you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone".

Ms Carrick said the Phillip pool was essential for physical and mental health, especially post-lockdown.

"We should be celebrating the pool's 50^th birthday. It opened in October, 1971 and here we are October 50 years later and the pool is closing. How sad is that?" she said.

Ms Carrick said the Phillip pool was dying the death of a thousand cuts, without any likelihood of an upgrade.

"The ACT Government committed to a new ice rink in Tuggeranong knowing that it would undermine the financial viability of the Phillip Swimming and Ice Skating Centre," she said.

"There is now little interest for the owner to invest in the pool. In effect, the 50-year-old Phillip Pool has been privatised, run down and is likely to close permanently.

"We have asked the ACT Government to come to our public meeting and talk about the future of the site and community facilities in Woden but we haven't heard back yet."

The pool site is leased by Dr Wayne Houghton through his company Glencora Pty Ltd.

It's long-time manager John Raut said he was now 72 and Dr Houghton was 77 and they were considering a handover. But he maintained, not to developers.

"I would hate to see the pool closed," Mr Raut said.

They had had interest from investors who wanted to take over the pool and ice rink, but had since shied away because of the government's plans for an ice rink in Tuggeranong.

"People say, 'Oh it's a doctor trying to get rid of the pool'. We've got to look at what we spend on the pool as well, especially when Andrew Barr keeps announcing that he's basically going to put us out of business when he builds new ice rink in Tuggeranong and that's been going on for the last two elections at least," Mr Raut said.

"It doesn't give a lot of confidence to Dr Houghton to say, 'Okay John, go ahead and spend a couple of hundred thousand dollars on the pool'. Because without the ice rink, the pool doesn't take enough money to cover the running costs. And with the opening of the Stromlo pool, it's not a viable business. It only exists because we've got the ice rink to subsidise it.

"We had a group of investors who were quite interested in the facility but it's not saleable when the government says it is going to replace the ice rink. And there's always rumours running around that the government is going to put high-rise on the site anyway."

Mr Raut was sceptical any work on the pool could be finished in time for opening by summer.

"Had I not drained the pool, we probably could have done another season without doing the expansion joint down the centre," he said.

"But by draining the pool, it needs a repaint completely, it needs tiling and it needs the expansion joint done and that's not a job that can be done in two weeks or three weeks."

As far back as 2012, a draft report into the future of aquatic facilities in Canberra warned the ACT Government that the Phillip pool had "aged substantially and is potentially under threat" and required substantial investment to bring it up to standard.

Woden Valley Community Council member and former president Martin Miller said it was time for the government to run the Phillip pool itself.

And it wasn't good enough for the government to tell people to use the new indoor pool in Molonglo.

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"It is located in a poor location and doesn't suit the Woden community if you want to walk or cycle and it can take up to two buses and an hour trip each way," he said.

Mr Miller said the pool lessee's had failed to make it an attractive option for users including school groups, including by not pursuing a 5 star water safety accreditation from the ACT Royal life saving society.

"It is now time for the ACT Government to take back the lease, compensate the company to a minimal fee and upgrade this facility which can include an indoor sports facility along with an indoor 50m pool and Olympic size ice rink," Mr Miller said.

"This can be funded through the millions of dollars the ACT Government receives from land sales in Woden, parking revenue, rates/land taxes and the lease variation charge (LVC) which is calculated roughly at about $30 000 average per apartment."

Meanwhile, ACT Ice Sports Federation spokesman Sandi Logan said it expected a business plan for the new Tuggeranong ice rink to be on the table by the first half of next year, from the government and the private provider Cruachan Investments Pty Ltd.

"Good progress is being made," he said.

A spokesperson for Sports Minister Yvette Berry said Cruachan Investments Pty Ltd would have their proposal to government by December.

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