Jedburgh swimming pool on verge of closure as councillors advised to reject latest bailout
Last updated 27th Nov 2024
It has served the community for more than a hundred years and helped launch the career of a Borders Olympian.
But the Laidlaw Memorial Pool in Jedburgh is on the verge of closure tonight (Wednesday), as it continues to struggle to balance the books.
The attraction's operators have made a request for an additional £80,000 of funding from Scottish Borders Council to keep it afloat until the end of the year.
But councillors are being advised to reject that move when they meet at local authority headquarters in Newtown St Boswells tomorrow (Thursday).
An urgent report being presented to the full council meeting reveals the pool faces further cuts to its opening hours and redundancies - even if the bailout is agreed.
It has already been forced to close its doors at weekends in a bid to save money.
Increased staff and energy costs are being blamed for the demise of the centre, which has also seen a reduction in the number of people through its doors since the Covid pandemic.
Scottish Borders Council - which itself is trying to plug a funding gap of £4m, and estimates a figure closer to £100,000 is needed to keep the pool's doors open until the end of March - says "significant funding has already been provided and the Trust is not showing any signs of improving its underlying financial position".
Jedburgh Leisure Facilities Trust currently has around £20k available in the bank - which is about enough to cover the wages due on Sunday, December the 1st. In addition, the report reveals it still has a debt of around £55,000 and, without immediate financial support, will cease to trade.
If councillors support the recommendations, the leisure centre could now be mothballed until a region-wide review of pool provision is carried out.
A spokesperson for the local authority said: "The Council provided Jedburgh Leisure Facilities Trust with £127,000 in January 2023 to enable energy efficiency measures to be implemented to help manage energy costs and the trust receives annual funding of £115,000 from the Council to provide services from the Laidlaw Memorial Pool facility, which is owned by the Council.
"This funding is normally split as quarterly payments, however to provide immediate cashflow support a number of the payments this year were advanced by the Council, and in fact the final payment was made in August this year.
"An additional £10,000 for the trust, in recognition of the challenges being faced by the sector, was agreed as part of the 2024/25 budget and has also been paid.
"At the Council meeting in August it was agreed £40,000 of emergency funding from reserves would also be provided to the trust as an interim measure to enable the trust to develop a business plan and engage further with the Council and with South of Scotland Enterprise in an attempt to make changes to move the trust and operating model on to a sustainable footing.
"Part of the Council’s ongoing joint work with Live Borders involves considering the delivery of sustainable services and facilities, supported by the analysis of property condition surveys and other key facility and service data. As agreed at Council in August, the Jedburgh facility is also being considered as part of this workstream, which is due to be completed in March 2025.
"As this work progresses there will be engagement with communities and other stakeholders, building upon the significant volume of feedback gathered from public and stakeholders as part of the Joint Review of sport, leisure and cultural services and facilities last year.
"If the funding is not agreed and the trust becomes insolvent the Laidlaw Memorial Pool premises would be handed back to the Council and it is proposed it would be mothballed until such time as the services and facilities options appraisal work is completed."
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