Thousands of people have signed a petition to keep Phillip Swimming and Ice Skating Centre open.

An e-petition on the Parliament of Australia website, along with paper petitions, has garnered more than 2,000 signatures combined.

The Save Phillip Pool petition, which closes on 18 June 2025, is sponsored by Independent Murrumbidgee MLA Fiona Carrick.

Ms Carrick told CD the issue had caught the community’s attention because town centres were designed to have social infrastructures.

“A lot of buses hub into the town centre because it’s the main interchange for the south,” she said.

“That’s why we need the social infrastructure there, so people can access it.

“It’s very important for people to participate in recreational activities for their physical and mental health, so we need to make it convenient and easy to be active.”

Ms Carrick said a community pool in a town centre should be 50 metres.

“To cater for the demand of different pool users – swimming clubs, water polo, aqua aerobics, scuba diving lessons and even underwater hockey and rugby,” she said.

“There’s a whole range of users that a 25m pool doesn’t have the capacity for.”

Ms Carrick said while the ACT Government was committed to another pool in Tuggeranong, the community wanted to keep it in Woden.

“I encourage people all across Canberra, not just the electorate, to sign the petition because we all need access to community facilities in our local areas,” she said.

The MP said Woden was without an indoor sports stadium or arts centre, and had already lost its basketball stadium, bowling greens, tennis courts and YMCA, which have all been turned into residential towers.

Ms Carrick said a development application (DA) had also been lodged for the former Pitch and Putt golf course site.

“We’ve lost a lot of stuff, and we want the fundamentals back,” she said.

The petition wants to draw attention to the Assembly that there were gaps in the provision of social infrastructure in the Woden Town Centre, including a 50m pool and associated green spaces.

“Local recreation facilities are needed to connect people and facilitate the community’s physical and mental health,” it further stated.

The petition requests for the Assembly to call on the ACT Government to retain and upgrade the existing Phillip Swimming and Ice Skating Centre until a new ice rink is built and a 50m pool and associated aquatic and green spaces are available in the Woden Town Centre.

It also requests for the commission of an independent review and community consultation into the high-density development in the Woden Town Centre, to ensure it is environmentally and socially sustainable and climate adaptive.

CD previously reported in November 2024 that Geocon had submitted plans to redevelop the Phillip pool.

The Woden Pool Project will see the current 50m eight-lane swimming pool replaced by a public indoor 25m lap pool inside the apartment complex, it further stated.

The DA for the project at 1, 3 and 5 Irving Street, Phillip is under assessment.

It shows a proposal for demolition works and the construction of a mixed use development comprising of new pool facility on the ground floor with shower facilities and cafe, two 13-storey residential towers with a total of 286 units, rooftop garden, four levels of basement parking, addition of a shared laneway connecting Melrose Drive with Irving Street, waste enclosure, driveway, landscaping, verge works, and associated works along with proposal of broader staging plan for the three phases of development.

It comes as speculation continues as to the future of Belconnen’s Big Splash Waterpark, with the local favourite closed all summer. The management team at Big Splash say they plan to reopen after upgrades have been completed, but many believe the Canberra icon may become yet another development site.

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