Sheffield Council accused of "shirking responsibility" over historic swimming pool
“Swimming lessons are a matter of life and death”
Sheffield Council is spending over £100m on revamping some of its leisure centres - but it has sparked anger by refusing to save one of the city’s most historic swimming pools.
The authority currently plans to spend £11m refurbishing Hillsborough Leisure Centre, £51.1m rebuilding Springs Leisure Centre, and £68m rebuilding Concord Sports Centre.
But it has been accused of is “shirking its responsibility” by allowing King Edwards Swimming Pool to close, amid allegations of failing to consult the public.
Campaigner Elizabeth Larminie, who has handed the council a petition calling for the pool, near Broomhall, to be saved, described its closure as devastating to the local community.
And she has accused the council of refusing to pay £200,000 to save the only pool in her area, while planning to spending £68m refurbishing Concord Leisure Centre.
The pool closed in May, after it emerged that the unpaid volunteer trustees who had been running it, after taking it over when the council had previously looked to close it in the 90s, were unable to find funds for essential repairs.
They handed it back to the council, who said it needed around £200,000 spending.
Ms Larminie presented a 303 name petition calling on the council to step in to a meeting of the full council in September, and said she will not give up campaigning to save the venue, which dates back to the 1930s.
She feels the closure has left communities across a large part of Sheffield without an easily accessible pool, especially those who do not drive.
She said: “When it comes to leisure spending, investment in swimming pools is THE number one priority for residents in Sheffield based on the Sport and Leisure Strategy 2023-2033.
“Secondly, Sheffield’s schools rely on council-owned pools such as King Edwards for statutory swimming lessons. Child drownings are rising in the UK and with several bodies of open water in West Sheffield, swimming lessons are a matter of life and death.”
She said the pool serves an area identified in the council’s own Built Sport and Leisure Facility Strategy as having the highest demand for swimming, but which had also lost the Sheffield University swimming pool in recent years, although the university is looking into creating a new sports centre which would include a pool.
She has also told the council she fears new housing developments in the city centre will limit the ability of Pond’s Forge to provide for residents outside the city centre.
Loss of pool ‘devastating to local community’
Ms Larminie said: “The loss of KES is devastating to the local community. It was used by a wide range of residents of this diverse area, including parents and babies, workers during their lunch breaks, children of local schools, and older people, with a huge number of swimming lessons provided for local children after school.
“SCC has not consulted residents and has said nothing about working to find partners to keep KES running. SCC judged KES to not be viable back in 1993, but the pool has gone on to have decades of success even while relying on unpaid volunteers to run it and with scant support from SCC. Following the closure of Goodwin Pool in 2023 it is now the only pool for this side of the city.”
Sheffield Council had previously said that the decision to close the facility rested with the Trust which had run it, but Miss Larminie said: “SCC’s statement that the decision to close the facility rests with the Trust is shirking responsibility for an active decision to strip the community of a vital asset with 90 years of service to boosting local health.
“The investment needed is relatively small. SCC has committed £68 million to renovate Concord Sports Centre, and the sum needed to reopen KES would be less than 0.3 percent of that. Going forward, local users may be willing to pay more for services and/or may suggest additional uses for the pool to increase revenue if given the opportunity to be consulted.
“SCC needs to step up and take responsibility for a valuable public asset.”
Council ‘fully recognises the strength of feeling’
Councillor Brian Holmshaw, chairman of the Sheffied Council’s Communities, Parks and Leisure Policy Committee, said the council fully recognises the strength of feeling within the local community and understood how disappointing the closure of the pool has been for residents, schools, swimming clubs and families who have used and valued the facility over many years.
He said: “King Edward's Swimming Pool was operated by the independent King Edward's Swimming Pool Trust and was not part of Sheffield City Council's contracted leisure estate.
“The Trust made the decision to cease operating the facility after concluding that it could no longer operate the pool safely and sustainably due to a combination of technical maintenance issues, increasing operating costs, staffing pressures and the significant investment required in both the building and pool plant. The Trust has subsequently indicated its intention to surrender its lease and wind up the charity.”
He said that before the closure, the council had been working with the Trust to understand its problems. It helped the Trust get money from Sport England's Swimming Pool Support Fund towards improving energy efficiency and reducing operating costs, and looked into possible links with leisure partners.
He said: “Given the importance of the pool to local communities, the council carefully considered whether financial or operational support could enable the facility to continue operating. However, the evidence available indicated that the facility would require significant investment before it could safely reopen.”
He said that while initial essential works would have cost £200,000, there were concerns it could cost another £600,000 and £800,000 in spending on the building and pool, plus another £200,000 a year in operating costs.
He said in the context of the whole city, the council decided taking on responsibility for the operation or funding of the facility would not represent a sustainable or ‘strategic’ use of money, due to the condition of the building, the scale of investment required, the ongoing operating subsidy that would be needed and wider pressures facing public finances.
The council has tried to minimise the impact of closure with alternative arrangements for school swimming sessions, and giving details of alternative venues.
Coun Holmshaw added: “The council remains committed to supporting access to swimming and leisure opportunities across Sheffield and is continuing to take a citywide approach to leisure investment, including major investment in existing facilities and consideration of future opportunities to increase swimming capacity across the city.”