Statement from Active4Today regarding Southwell Leisure Centre

As you know we’ve been keeping you up to date on developments in relation to the main pool at Southwell Leisure Centre.

The District Council has been keeping us fully informed on all discussions in relation to the swimming pool since its closure in October 2023.  Today the District Council released the statement below and it was important to us, and to the District Council, that we shared this with our staff and customers immediately.  

On 29 October 2023, the main pool at Southwell Leisure Centre was closed. The pool was leaking 9,000 litres of water a day and the safety of users of the pool could not be guaranteed. Southwell Leisure Centre Trust, the owners of the leisure centre, supported the closure of the pool.

Newark and Sherwood District Council engaged with specialist contractors to undertake investigations into the cause of the water leakage and to explore different options for how best to repair the pool. The cost of repairing the pool was estimated at £645,000.

On 19 December 2023, Newark and Sherwood District Council decided against spending £645,000 on repairing an old pool and agreed to allocate £5.5million to provide a new swimming facility at Southwell Leisure Centre. This facility would comprise a new main pool and learner pool, new changing facilities and improved and modern provision for people with disabilities. The new swimming facility was seen as being the first step towards a new leisure centre. The £5.5m investment was subject to Southwell Leisure Centre Trust, the owners of the leisure centre, agreeing to transfer its land to the District Council. 

Four months on, the pool remains closed, and Newark and Sherwood District Council is still waiting for a public commitment from Southwell Leisure Centre Trust to replace and not repair the pool and to support freehold transfer of its land.

Active4Today have worked hard to provide alternative swimming provision at other pools, and everyone acknowledges and understands peoples' frustration with the loss of the pool and the inconvenience and added costs that this has caused. What is disappointing however is the continued misinformation and misrepresentation of the facts. The examples are many but include that the District Council wants the Trust’s land for housing or to sell to Sainsbury's; that the District Council has inflated the estimated repair cost to suit its own agenda; that the District Council wants the Trust's land because the leisure centre makes lots of money; that the cost of repairing the pool could be paid back in one year from the surplus income generated by the pool; that the District Council is compelled to repair the pool as a condition of its lease.  

The time has come to draw to a close something that was only ever intended to be positive for the health and well-being of the local community but has become divisive, consuming of too much time, and bogged down in process and endless excuses to not move forward. 

At a meeting held on 25 April 2024 involving representatives from Southwell Town Council, Southwell Leisure Centre Trust and Newark and Sherwood District Council, the District Council confirmed that it had lost confidence in the Trust and was unwilling to wait indefinitely for formal and public confirmation of its support. A proposal would therefore be submitted to the District Council’s Cabinet on 14 May 2024 to withdraw the £5.5million.

In addition, the Trust was advised that if it wished to pursue repair of the pool, the District Council would provide £247,000 to the Trust, this being the amount of the quotation that the Trust had obtained to undertake the repair. The District Council also offered to provide a further £250,000 to cover the cost of additional essential repairs to the dry side of the leisure centre, repairs which the District Council inherited from the Trust. It was made clear that the District Council’s payments were conditional upon exiting the lease and handing back full responsibility for the leisure centre to the Trust.

Councillor Paul Peacock, Leader of Newark and Sherwood District Council said “I’m genuinely disappointed that we've been unable to progress the development of a new swimming facility as we'd hoped.  This was always seen as a first step towards building a new leisure centre for the people of Southwell and the surrounding villages.

“We thought by now we would be well into the planning stage of building that new pool. Instead, since December, we’ve been trying to secure an agreement with the owners Southwell Leisure Centre Trust. Four months on, we’ve made very little progress and the response from the Trust has lacked the urgency and commitment that is needed.

“The District Council's position has not changed from day one. We believe that a replacement not a repair of the pool is in the best long-term interests of the community, but this is not something the District Council can make happen on its own. No sensible local authority would invest £5.5million of taxpayer’s money in a facility that those taxpayers don't own and can't influence. So, we will consider withdrawing the £5.5million at the Cabinet meeting on 14 May; consider how else and where else this investment may be used and help the Trust by making available to them the £247,000 that it says is required to repair the pool. We will also provide a further £250,000 to undertake essential repairs to the dry side of the leisure centre.  These contributions are conditional upon the District Council exiting the lease thereby leaving the Trust to manage its own affairs from now on.

“Since 2004, the District Council has invested over £3.8 million in Southwell Leisure Centre and saved the leisure centre from closure after the pandemic. The District Council was also prepared to invest another £5.5million in a new pool and another £750,000 on further improvements to the dry side of the leisure centre. To suggest, as the Save our Pool Group has done, that the District Council is interested in anything other than the health and wellbeing of the community, flies in the face of the evidence. I would like to thank all the leisure centre’s staff and customers for their continued support and reassure everyone that the leisure centre will continue to remain open, as it currently is, while the District Council and its partner Active4Today continue to operate the leisure centre.”

You will likely have a lot of questions around this, but we wanted to let you know as soon as possible to advise that any changes will not take place overnight, so it’s business as usual for Active4Today. The process the District Council refers to above will take some time and as yet we don’t know how long this may take.  However, the District Council is committed to ensuring that the Centre remains open as they work through the process of exiting their lease and Active4Today will continue to operate all the facilities as normal. 

We would like to reassure all our customers that none of the above process will affect any of your activities, memberships, lessons or hires.

We will send you any further updates as and when we know more and we would like to take this opportunity to thank you for supporting us at Southwell Leisure Centre.     

Thank you for your continued support,

The Active4Today team.