Councillors allocated the funding at Tuesday's council meeting, as the facility met most financial year targets but now faced revenue uncertainty due to coronavirus restrictions.

Cr Mick Wolfe said the facility had taken steps forward to grow.

"They are really having a go," Cr Wolfe said. "It is not a dead duck in the water by any means.

"If council continues to support them through the next year or two, I'm sure with their initiatives they will be striving ahead."

Those initiatives include now delivering its own swim school, which has offered an opportunity for further membership income.

The facility has also increased its membership to 250 from about 50 two years earlier.

Belfast Aquatics chair Anne McIlroy said the funding, from council caravan park revenues, was short of the $200,000 the facility had asked for.

"It is the volunteers who are keeping this pool going," she said.

The pool has about a dozen volunteers but Ms McIlroy said wages were also costing the facility $250,000 and an increase in utility costs was putting pressure on finances.

"Eleven years go we applied for funding which they gave us $150,000 and they have never increased it," Ms McIlroy said.

"As the cost of utilities increases, the funding needs to be reviewed."

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The Belfast Aquatics Committee operates autonomously from council and was set up in 2006 on the proviso that it did not need further funding from the council.

But Ms McIlroy said other community pools also received council support, including at Macarthur and Mortlake.

"This is a community pool, it's for the community and was built by the community."

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