Rye swimming pool is one of the early casualties of crippling energy costs, but it is quite likely many other pools and leisure centres may also follow the same fate before too long unless the government steps in with a financial lifeline.
The financial pressure is also being felt elsewhere and in Wales, it is predicted that of the 500 pools as many as 150 could close due to high energy bills according to Fergus Feeney, of Swim Wales. He and not-for-profit operator Freedom Leisure said swimming pools should be classified as intensive energy users but pools for some reason have not been included in the government’s energy support scheme.
As part of this scheme museums and libraries will qualify for a higher level of discount on their energy bills from April. Fergus Feeney commented: “We don’t understand how libraries and museums can be protected and swimming pools, which will take up to five times the energy [to operate], aren’t.”
“They are energy-demanding facilities, but they play a huge part in the health and wellbeing of our nation,” he added. “We estimate 30% of pools could close without help,” he said. “They’re the ones really close to the bone. The next 12 months… it’s critical that we get financial help.”
Some pools have already lowered temperatures and raised prices in response to rising energy bills. Not-for-profit organisation, Freedom Leisure, runs 29 leisure centres on behalf of local councils in Wales, 20 of which have swimming pools.
Jeremy Rowe, operations director, said it would cost an extra £3.5m to run them, even after lowering temperatures and putting prices up.
“We really thought we’d be on the list of energy-intensive users,” he said. “We don’t know why we haven’t been included. We’ve submitted the evidence to show how intensive [operating swimming pools] is.”
The government said: “We know our grassroots sports facilities are contending with increases in running costs and we provided an £18bn package of support for organisations such as clubs, pools, leisure centres, schools, charities and businesses through the winter.”
“We are investing £260m to build or upgrade thousands of grassroots facilities across the UK,” it added.
The Welsh government said it was “doing all it can” to help with energy bills. “The UK government holds the main levers related to energy costs. We are calling on UK ministers to include leisure centres and swimming pools in its energy bill discount scheme. We are also providing £16m of capital funding to Sport Wales over the next two years,” it added, “which includes helping upgrade sport facilities with energy saving measures.”
Meanwhile there is still a large question mark over the future of the Rye pool and possibly the leisure centre as a whole but we at Rye News will continue to keep you posted but getting information with any relevance is not always easy.
Image Credits: Nick Forman .
I’d like Freedom Leisure or RDC to inform us now whether the Rye pool will be reopened in spring, as promised when the closure announcement was made. The implicit suggestion was that the warmer ambient temperatures would allow the pool to reopen as heating costs would be zero or much reduced. In effect, Rye pool would become almost like an open air pool, which were/are normally open from May to the end of September, possibly longer. I suspect, for various reasons, the closure may be permanent.