MP's fury at pools' closure proposals (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

MP's fury at pools' closure proposals

6:17am Wednesday 18th June 2008 in

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Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe has branded consultants’ proposals to shut four district swimming pools as “ill-considered, short-sighted and damaging”.

He is furious at the advice given to Bradford Council to consider shutting pools in Bingley, Manningham and Queensbury as well as Richard Dunn Sports Centre at Odsal.

He says the report, by Consultancy firm Strategic Leisure, is “full of holes” and will not make swimming facilities more accessible to people.

And he accused the Council of failing to come up with a proper sports facility strategy for the district after years of being asked.

The consultants were commissioned to review all the Council’s leisure and sports facilities. It concluded there were too many pools but no central facility and no suitable 25-metre competition pool.

As well as closing the three smaller pools, it advises developing an eight-lane competition pool in the city centre which would attract swimmers from a larger catchment area.

The Council has been looking at a site off Thornton Road for a number of years since Thornton Baths closed in 2000 after major structural problems were found.

The consultants will now be asked to look forward and consider the picture over a decade – and to model where investment and replacement is needed.

But Bradford South MP, Mr Sutcliffe, told the Telegraph & Argus he was “extremely angry” about the proposals.

He said: “I have been asking the Council for its sports facility strategy for about six years and this is the best it can come up with; a plan to close four swimming pools and not much else.

“The Council has had a representative on the regional board of Sport England for six years. During that time she has heard time and again that Bradford needs to develop a sports strategy if it is to attract inward investment in sport and leisure.

“Why has it taken so long to get to this, a document that merely seeks to close sports facilities in the district? Did it really take them six years to come up with this? The plans are ill considered, short sighted and damaging to the whole district.”

Mr Sutcliffe said of the report: “How can they realistically argue that closing four pools – in Queensbury, Bingley, Richard Dunn and Manningham – and replacing it with one 25 metre pool in the city centre will make swimming facilities more accessible?

“Their own figures show that there is already a shortfall in demand for swimming pool provision across the district. They admit that these proposals will massively increase the deficiency of provision against future demand.

“The report was written in January and so doesn’t take into consideration the recent announcement by my own department of free swimming for the over 60s. It is the Government’s intention to make swimming free for everyone by 2012. At the same time the Council is closing pools and reducing pool capacity. It is completely out-of-step with the rest of the country.

“I have tried to engage with the Council but why were the district’s MPs not consulted about this? They say they consulted extensively but why would they not want to sit down and discuss it with the current Sports Minister?

“It’s absolute madness. Sport should be above petty party politics but the leadership of this Council have clearly shown themselves incapable of rising above the fray. We have a real opportunity to set out our sporting and leisure priorities for the district, to attract inward investment to the city, but once again the council are in danger of wasting a golden opportunity.”

Mr Sutcliffe warned that he had already heard reports that leisure staff are being told that their pools will be closing.

“They are trying to say that these are only proposals and that an extensive consultation period will follow. I don’t believe them,” he added.

Councillor Anne Hawkesworth, the Council’s executive member for environment and culture, said: “This is a review based on Sport England criteria looking at what people need and what we have got at the moment. It actually does indicate that we have got lots of facilities in the wrong places.

“If we don’t undertake this review we are unlikely to get external funding for a strategic pool in the city centre.”

She added that the second phase of the consultant’s review would be considered next month and consultation is likely to take place after that, before any decisions are made.

Councillor David Warburton, the Labour group’s spokesman for sport, said: “We have grave concerns about the loss of a number of major pools within the district.

“I understand there is talk of a proposed city centre pool. However, that was proposed five or six years ago when Thornton Pool was closed and we are still no nearer to that.”

Coun Warburton (Wyke) said the move would undermine the Government’s attempts to get more people involved in swimming through free entry to pools.

He said: “It is all well and good to say we want to get more people into swimming, but where and how far are they going to have to travel to get to one of these free swimming sessions?

“I don’t feel this has been looked at in a full and proper manner. There has been no proper debate or consultation.

“What’s more, we still don’t have a sports strategy for the district and we haven’t had one for six or seven years. The sports strategy should go hand-in-hand with the Sports Facilities Assessment. The whole city is losing out.”

Councillor David Ward, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrat group, said: “If you look at the sports facilities across the district we are falling further and further behind. In places like Manchester, Sheffield and Leeds, you can see there has been a huge amount of investment over the years in sports facilities and we haven’t had that level here in Bradford at all. One of the problems has been attracting external funding.

“Facilities for elite sports are sadly lacking in the district and without Odsal Sporting Village it is very difficult to see how Bradford will be able to maximise the potential of the 2012 Olympics.”

Coun Ward proposed that the Council should have its own ‘sports minister’ in the form of a new portfolio holder on the executive.