Budget: Bid to protect future of Cornwall hydrotherapy pool has failed
The facility at Polkyth Leisure Centre in St Austell is among several sites facing permanent closure
Last updated 24th Feb 2022
The former leader of Cornwall Council has failed in his bid to protect the future of a hydrotherapy pool in St Austell.
Julian German had proposed an alternative budget to a meeting of the full council on Tuesday, which would have provided funding to reopen the facility at Polkyth Leisure Centre.
The pool, which has facilities which enable people with disabilities to use it, is one of a number of leisure services which operator GLL has said it can no longer afford to run.
Cllr German had sought to get council approval for running costs for the pool to be provided for a year up to £45,000.
However his proposal was blocked by Conservative councillors with Richard Pears, Cabinet member responsible for leisure services, saying there was not enough demand for the pool.
One Conservative councillor said that the pool had been closed for two years, Cllr German responded that this was due to Covid-19 and that as the pool is operated at a higher temperature to standard swimming pools and used by people who are vulnerable to the virus it was not a surprise that it had been closed.
The Independent councillor said that the facility was important and that he had spoken to people in the NHS who said that they had been referring people to use it before the pandemic.
Cllr Pears claimed that usage of the pool was low before the pandemic and would be even less now. He also claimed that some of those using the pool had been for recreation purposes.
The Conservative councillor also said that there was another hydrotherapy pool at the Merlin Centre in nearby Hewas Water. Cllr German has previously said that the Merlin pool does not have sufficient capacity to take on those who had been using the St Austell facility.
Cllr Pears said that he was having discussions with the NHS to see if there was another way of funding the hydrotherapy pool and that the council had invited other operators to step in to take it on.
However Cllr German said that he was concerned that vulnerable people were being deprived of a facility which could be reopened for what he said was a reasonably small amount of funding.
That was disputed by Cllr Pears who claimed that the £45,000 would not be sufficient and it was more likely to cost around £100,000 to reopen the pool.
The alternative budget proposal was lost when put to the vote with 30 in favour, 45 against and one abstention.