After previous plans for an outdoor swimming pool at the Béco canal dock in the north of the city fell through, a proposal to have the pool built by the private Finnish Nordic Urban company is now being put on the table.
Nordic Urban has already built open-air swimming pools in several European cities and is very much interested in building one in Brussels too, the Dutch-speaking socialist Vooruit party's chapter in Brussels announced in a press release on Friday.
"We have been in contact for several years with this reliable private partner to develop and operate a swimming pool in the canal. This company is willing to build and finance a swimming pool in Brussels," said Pascal Smet, group leader of Vooruit.brussels in the Regional Parliament.
"For us, there is no more time to lose and concrete agreements must now be made to achieve a good public-private partnership. For instance, we need to discuss the concrete location, the concession time, the (social) rates and priority for Brussels schoolchildren," he said.
Previous plans fell through
In 2009, an architectural competition took place to build an outdoor swimming pool along the Béco dock, but those plans were later dropped.
Last year, the current Brussels City Councillor for Sport Benoit Hellings (Groen) put forward a proposal to build an outdoor swimming pool in the water on the other bank of the canal. €1 million was provided for a feasibility study, but it became clear on Thursday that the dossier would not get off the ground due to lack of leadership.
Now, Vooruit.brussels comes with a new proposal for a swimming pool on the same side of the canal on the Béco dock, as a beautiful park is currently being built there. In turn, this would be an ideal place to provide swimming space as well.
Prediction of what the open-air swimming pool would look like in previous proposals. Credit: KIS Studio - Sweco.
Due to the Brussels-Capital Region's difficult financial situation, however, no public funds will be available in the next five years to carry out the large-scale project in the canal, if at all feasible. While it had been agreed to include the private initiative in the feasibility study, Vooruit.brussels said that this is taking far too long and the result is already known.
"We can realise an outdoor swimming pool in the canal on the Tour & Taxis side, at Park Béco, via the private player without any major public investment," the party said in a press release. "This track must now be followed. We must not miss the opportunity."
For Vooruit.brussels, the other projects to swim outdoors must also be continued and accelerated; compared to other big cities, Brussels is in urgent need of several outdoor swimming facilities. Amsterdam, for instance, has eight open-air swimming facilities, Helsinki has three, Prague has six, Vienna has 10, Paris nine, and Berlin has no fewer than 26.
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In Brussels, meanwhile, there are concrete plans to enable swimming in a pond in Neerpede (permit has been issued) and to create a swimming complex on the roof of Manufacture at the Abattoir site in Anderlecht – a public-private initiative that has already been calculated.
The next step for this is the launch of a DBFMO (Design, Build, Finance & Maintain & Operate) contract by the Brussels Region, which still needs to be decided by the Brussels Government before the elections. Reinforcement works on the abattoir building have already started.
