Fantastic news! At long last, after a huge effort from so many people, Rye pool is set to reopen its doors to the public from Monday, October 2.
Rother District Council and Freedom Leisure, the not-for-profit charitable leisure trust that manages the facility, together with our mayor and mayoress, Rye Town Council, local MPs and many more of our community have worked tirelessly to find a way to reopen Rye swimming pool as soon as possible after soaring energy costs forced its temporary closure in 2022.
Freedom Leisure will focus on offering as wide a range of service as possible from the start. However, opening hours and sessions offered may be different from before the closure due to ongoing issues with costs and recruitment. It is anticipated that Freedom Leisure will seek to increase the initial offering as use of the pool by the local community increases.
Cllr Hazel Timpe, the district council’s portfolio holder for neighbourhood services and tourism, said: “We are delighted that, after almost a year, people will soon be able to use their local pool again, and are pleased that Freedom Leisure is doing everything it can to offer as much access as possible. I’d also like to thank Cllrs Simon McGurk and Cheryl Creaser for their support.
“It is vital that people now show their support and use the facility to ensure that its future is viable.”
Ivan Horsfall Turner, Freedom Leisure chief executive officer, said: “Despite the unprecedented and well documented financial challenges our sector continues to face, we are very pleased to announce the re-opening of Rye swimming pool.
“We continue to work collaboratively with the council and the other local community groups to ensure the longer-term future of the facility. We hope the people of Rye will see this as a positive initial step and support their local community sports centre now and into the future as we grow the programme.”
Richard Farhall, Rye town clerk, added: “Rye Town Council and the Rye Leisure Centre Community Working Group are pleased that a way has been found to re-open the pool – but will continue to work on a long-term sustainable plan for both the pool and the sports centre.”
Initially the pool will be open limited days and times and this information will be published at www.freedom-leisure.co.uk/rye as soon as it is confirmed. Opening hours will be kept under constant review in line with actual use by members of the public.
Rother District Council continues to work with Freedom Leisure, Rye Town Council and East Sussex County Council to ensure a sustainable future for the pool.
Image Credits: Freedom Leisure , Kt bruce , Simon McGuirk .
This is such welcome news and we now all need to get back to using the pool (and encourage new users) so that it can become a viable resource for the whole area. Thanks to all involved in resolving this.
A big thank to all who are responsible for this good news and made an asset in Rye available again for local and surrounding areas.
So people get swimming to prove we need it.
Huge Congratulations to everyone who worked so hard over these past months to make this happen… a fantastic result!!!
Fantastic news! I will be using the pool when it re opens. Thank you to all that helped get the pool re opened
Long awaited Great news well done.
Simply the best news!
Great news. I’ve really missed the regular exercise.
I only used Tenterden pool once and the contrast was striking. Very little thought for disabled users, including several steps down to the changing area and ladders to get in the water.
Such fabulous news – a real buzz at the Leisure Centre this morning. We must all do our bit to fully utilise this wonderful resource as much as possible. Thanks to all who made it possible.
This is fantastic news and a big thankyou to all involved but please don’t forget previous rye councillors who worked very hard on this including myself
wonderful news, our thanks must go to our two newest councilors Cheryl Creaser and Simon McGurk for their tireless efforts, they were never going to give up. Our pool must be utilised in every way possible to ensure that it remains open for the people of Rye and surrounding areas.
Great news! I’ll be there!
Excellent news, well done son in law and others for a lot of hard work and unsociable hours put in
Looking forward to using your facilities with disabilities in mind .
Lesley from Tenterden ♀️
Congratulations and thank you to everyone for achieving this.
See you there.
Wonderful news, just in time for the winter. Thanks to all the people who never gave up.
While this is good news, I sincerely hope that the reopening includes an investment plan to upgrade the pool to ensure it has a sustainable long term future.
It will be interesting to hear from Freedom Leisure and Council how this will be accomplished.
I just wanted to quickly comment to say what a fantastic job the staff at Rye Pool have been doing since this news broke. They have been painting, tidying and cleaning every time I’ve been to the centre including this morning when I used the cafe area for my first Cllr surgery. When the pool opens again on Monday they can be proud of everything they’ve done to bring it about.
A big thank you to everyone involved to make the opening of the pool possible which is essential for the town and local community! I appreciate to start with the opening hours will be limited BUT really hope that the opening at 630 am even if it is not every day can be resumed at some stage during the week which will allow those working full time to use the facility before work which was extremely popular before covid struck!
Makes me smile that while the swimming pool is to open, we have been experiencing disruption to our water supplies.
May we all appreciate this precious necessity to life and how we in Britain have pure water on tap into our homes.
And have also bottled water deliver to use when the tap water wasn’t available.
I thank all those who have been working hard to make this possible.from the engineers to those who have delivered the bottled water to water stations and to the door steps..
YES Monday 2 October 2023! Swam in Rye pool again – It is open and lovely – wonderful news – please put up some balloons or have a fly past or SOMETHING – after all the distress of its closure which nobody really knew how long would last! Fanfare required!