A council is set to vote on the future of Southwell’s swimming pool — with a recommendation to withdraw its £5.5million offer and exit the lease of the existing leisure centre.
A document published ahead of next week’s (Tuesday 14) Newark and Sherwood District Council cabinet meeting recommends cabinet members remove the allocation of £5.5million which was to fund a new main pool, learner pool, and associated facilities.
It is also recommended that delegated authority is given to the chief executive, deputy chief executive, assistant of director legal and democratic services, and the portfolio holder for strategy performance to negotiate the surrender of the current lease with Southwell Leisure Centre Trust.
Southwell Leisure Centre’s main pool has been closed since October 2023, due a major leak which was causing thousands of litres of water to be lost from the pool every day.
The capital allocation of £5.5million was agreed, subject to the transfer of land from Southwell Leisure Centre Trust, by cabinet in December 2023 — but since then the way forward for the pool, and the handling of the situation, has been in dispute by all parties involved.
A report to cabinet says the scheme had consumed a “disproportionate amount of time” for officers and that the trust’s agreement arriving late and “with some resistance and reluctance”, coupled with opposition from the community, “does not bode well for the next steps of progressing freehold transfer with the Charity Commission and subsequent construction of a new pool”
The document states: “Securing agreement from Southwell Leisure Centre Trust has been delayed and complicated by two main factors. Firstly, the trust’s persistence in wanting the district council to meet the cost of repairing the pool as well as providing a new one. Secondly, the exclusion of the six district council representatives on the trust from participating in decision-making, rendering the trust inquorate and unable, in its view, to decide to progress freehold transfer of its land.
“Senior officers have suggested since December 2023 that the council and the trust make a joint application for the land to be transferred to the council; however until a few days prior to the preparation of this report, the trust has been unwilling to do so.”
The position statement from the trustees, presented in draft form at an extraordinary meeting of Southwell Town Council on May 1 and ratified at the trust’s next meeting, stated the “trustees will support the construction of a new pool”, with conditions of an agreed timetable, modern design standards, consultation with users, trustees, the town council and community, and would transfer the land “upon terms approved by and acceptable to the Charity Commission”.
The district council’s report continued: “While it could be said that the district council has at long-last secured the in-principle agreements that it was seeking, the reality is that opposition to the proposed replacement and not repair of the main pool continues — within the trust and within some elements of the community. Accusations have been wide-ranging and lacking any substance and include claims that the district council wants the site of the leisure centre for housing, or to sell to Sainsburys; that it has inflated the estimated cost of the repair to suit its own agenda; that the district council wants ownership of the centre because it is a lucrative “cash cow.”
“Furthermore, there have been endless assertions that the district council is compelled to repair the pool as a condition of its lease and that the cost of repairing the pool could be paid back in one year from the surplus income generated by the pool, completely overlooking the running costs of the pool and the impact of financing its repair. The reality is that the lease does not compel the council to place the leisure centre into a better condition than was the case at the point of entering into the lease and there is very clear evidence that the trust was aware of the damage to the pool back in 2016 but chose not to repair it.”
The recommendation to retract the funding was “mindful of the prospect of yet more public money being wasted on protracted negotiations and defending the council’s position in the community” it claimed.
As consideration for the surrender of the lease, £497,000 is recommended to to paid to cover the trust’s quote for repair of the pool and £250,000 for essential works to the dry-side facilities.
Upon termination of the lease, the unspent £25,000 budget for design and feasibility of a new leisure facility and £12,300 for the engineered solution to safeguard the structure of the current main pool, will be returned to the district’s reserves.
District council leader Paul Peacock said: “There have been plenty of twists and turns on a journey that should have been simple and a great thing for Southwell. In addition to the lack of action by the trust over the last five months, I am extremely disappointed at the misinformation and insults that have been spread about us. It is incredibly disappointing that a decision by the district council, that was intended to be positive for the health and well-being of the local community, has become divisive, bogged down in process with endless excuses to not move forward.
“Therefore, the district council’s cabinet will be voting, next Tuesday, on removing the £5.5m allocated to the pool and to re-allocate this money to future health and wellbeing related schemes in the district. In addition, the trust have obtained a quote of £247,000 for the lining of the main pool and the chairman has even stated that the pool can be repaired for less than this cost. Since this is the option that has been pursued by the trust from the beginning, and has been supported by the Friends of Southwell Pool, the district council will offer the Trust the £247,000 it needs, along with another £250,000 for work required to the dry side. In return, we will surrender the lease and allow the trust to continue to manage the leisure centre.
“I really am extremely disappointed for the residents of Southwell that it has ended up like this. I’m disappointed that they may not get a new pool and ultimately a new leisure centre. Following the decision from Cabinet on May 14, 2024, the trust could have the money it believes it needs to repair the pool, so at least Southwell residents can look forward to the trust taking the action it has pressed for from day one.”
The document also confirmed the council had not undertaken any design or feasibility work, “other than the initial massing exercise to demonstrate that a new swimming facility (and future leisure centre) would fit onto the land adjacent to the current leisure centre”.
It stated it would not incur the cost of these works — budgeted at £25,000 — until it had “certainty” it controlled the current building and the land for the proposed pool.
The £5.5million capital allocation — to be funded by borrowing — is recommended to be retained in the council’s capital programme, to be re-allocated to other health and wellbeing schemes in the district.
The report also noted the council cannot compel Southwell Leisure Centre Trust to accept surrender of the lease.
Cabinet members will vote on the recommendations at the meeting on Tuesday, May 14. The full document can be seen on the council’s website.
