Great Lakes Council's Manager of Parks and Recreation, David Bortfeld, said these changes were necessary to bring Tea Gardens Pool in line with council's recent categorisation of swimming pools under the Department of Local Government's guidelines.

"These changes resulted in a reduction in time the pool is actively supervised, however the opening hours of the pool remain unchanged," said Mr Bortfeld.

The idea was that supervision will only be offered during school holidays, however this may now change due to concern which was raised at the February 28 Ordinary Council Meeting in relation to several incidents of unruly behaviour at the Tea Gardens Pool since it has been unsupervised.

"We are currently investigating the incidents that were alluded to on February 28, however to date, have not had an alarming rate of incidences reported directly to council," explained Mr Bortfeld.

He said supervision at the pool has varied over the last 10 years, to try and accommodate need with the financial resources available.

"The patronage at Tea Gardens could not sustain a full time office/kiosk operator to take admission fees or full time supervision.

"The employment of full time pool supervisors would place further strain on existing funds and increase usage charges dramatically," explained Mr Bortfeld.

After considering this aspect, it was requested at the February 28 meeting that volunteers be appointed as responsible supervisors.

"With regard to the use of volunteers to offer pool guard services, it is presumed the process would be very similar to the use of Surf Life Saving volunteers over the weekends," said Mr Bortfeld.

"As for the legalities of using volunteers and the potential make up of duties, we are still identifying potential opportunities and constraints.

"Once all the facts are on hand we will be in a better position to approach the issue," he explained.

Paul James has been a lifeguard at the Tea Gardens Pool for almost 10 years, and has always believed that no supervision would create major problems.

"Last time the pool was unmanned, incidents such as placing a fibreglass surfboard in the pool, running about 20-metres across the concrete, jumping on the board and skimming across the pool were an everyday occurrence.

"They kids can run a muck in there because there is no one rostered on to tell them not to," said Mr James.