‘It means everything’: Athletes left overjoyed after Ponds Forge reopening date is pushed forwards

The announcement was made today but a formal decision will be made during a cabinet meeting on September 23.

Council officers said they are working on the details of how much money and how it will work, and a report will be published next week.

Councillor Mary Lea, cabinet member for culture, parks and leisure at the council, said in a scrutiny meeting on the topic that they are aiming to reopen it at the beginning of October and it will be open for the public.

She said: “I am pleased that these plans will be brought to cabinet later this month.

“We know how important Ponds Forge is to the city’s sporting excellence and our wider communities and the only barrier to having it re-open has been the financial position caused by the pandemic and continued restrictions on gatherings.

“We are facing a constantly evolving situation in dealing with re-opening all of our services and facilities.

“We will be working with local groups that have come forward as discussions have already been ongoing between them and Sheffield City Trust around exactly how much support is needed. However, we feel that if the venue is to be opened it is only right that it should be available for all of the public as well as supporting some of our sports clubs and elite athletes.”

The council gave Sheffield City Trust £15 million to reopen most of its facilities across the city, except for Ponds Forge, last month. This was £10 million more than budgeted for.

At the time it said it would cost a further £1.5 million to reopen Ponds Forge to the public, which it said was too expensive.

A 'best case scenario' date for reopening was estimated to be April 2021, but aquatics clubs based there - some among the best in the country with Olympians at every Games since it opened - said they would not survive until then.

Since then, the clubs submitted plans to Sheffield Council and MPs across the city calling for £360,000 support to reopen it for athletes. They said leaving it closed would have a devastating impact on hundreds of athletes and coaches and consequences for the whole city.

Their campaign gathered support from MPs across Sheffield and more than 2,250 sign ups on their petition in just a few days.

Responding to the council's announcement, Tom Owens, head coach at City of Sheffield Diving Club, said: “For the first time I’m lost for words. I’m delighted.

"It feels a bit too good to be true at the minute, we were gearing up to go into this scrutiny meeting this afternoon where we were going to ask a question, link to our proposals and wait to see what the lay of the land was. Because since the proposal went in last week I haven’t had much of a discussion with any of the councillors who I think are in decision making positions. But if they are not only reopening it for us but have found the funds to reopen it for everyone, then that is truly the best case scenario we could have hoped for.

“We had so much support clearly from all members of the clubs but also the wider community in Sheffield. Everyone has rallied around it, I think I’ve spoken to more councillors and politicians in the past couple of weeks than I have in my entire life and they couldn’t have been more supportive of it. What that shows is this venue and people having access to these sorts of facilities and the heritage and the results that have come before and will come again are important to the people of Sheffield. The campaign is something we can all be very proud of.

"It literally means everything. It would mean I’ve still got a job when October comes and we can still run a business that employs loads of other people, all of the athletes across all of the clubs who have since March been doing everything they can to stay healthy, motivated and fit and have been bitterly disappointed in the recent months can go back to doing the thing they love. And for the people that were at risk of redundancy at SCT there are hopefully going to be some more positive conversations if the building is going to reopen."