Dundee needs a proper swimming strategy - SNP slammed over swim provision failure
Dundee City Council Scottish Liberal Democrat councillors have called for a proper strategy for swimming provision in the city, following recent failures of the City Council to provide facilities at the Olympia, the SNP administration failing to provide any swimming provision at the £100 million East End Community Campus (EECC) now being built and the failure of the SNP government to pass on swimming funding to the city.
The council’s Scottish LibDem Group Leader Councillor Fraser Macpherson said, “I recently asked for an update on the Olympia repairs and it looks like these are on schedule and hopefully we will see re-opening later in the autumn of the year. However, no-one should be under any doubt that the prolonged closure of the city’s main swimming facility has had anything other than a hugely negative impact on access to swimming provision over many months, both for the public and for local swimming clubs.”
The Senior Manager for Capital Projects and Cost Management at Dundee City Council has recently advised Cllr Macpherson :
“I can confirm that the project is progressing well across the various trade activities taking place.
“In relation to the overall programme, the project is approximately 75% complete.
“We remain on target for the original completion date of 6th October for the contract works.
“It is worth highlighting that the October date is the construction completion, and we are developing a commissioning schedule to determine dates for Leisure and Culture Dundee staff being trained and in a position to set an opening date in due course.
“Once we get closer to the end of the construction programme, in conjunction with Leisure and Culture Dundee, we will be able to set a date for the reopening.”
The Scottish Liberal Democrat Group has said that progress with Olympia comes as a relief and hopes the re-opening can take place as soon as possible. However, it feels a proper strategy for swimming provision in Dundee is urgently needed.
Councillor Macpherson added, “On top of the Olympia fiasco, the council has made a total mess of swimming provision at the East End Campus. It is the most costly tender Dundee City Council has ever had at over £100 million but there’s to be no swimming pool, despite the fact that the schools it will replace – Braeview Academy and Craigie High School – both have swimming pools – a backwards step if ever there was one.
“When I tried to raise this at the council’s Policy & Resources Committee, the council leader shut down questioning. No wonder – when I then asked the Children and Families Service who made the decision to have no swimming provision and when it was made, they effectively said no-one did and there is no such date. It also failed to consult the local community on the lack of any swimming provision. This causes us to draw the conclusion that swimming is low down the priority list of the council, which is hugely disappointing.”
In answer to Councillor Macpherson’s questions about swimming provision, the Director of Children and Families Service advised him :
“I can say from the outset, there was no one specific day/date when the decision was made about a swimming pool in the EECC.
“It was more as a result of various early conversations across Children & Families Service, City Development and Corporate Services.
“The approach taken in developing the scheme has been to communicate with all stakeholders and update as the design progressed. On this basis the focus was on what accommodation was being included within the facility rather than what was not being included.
“As such there was at no point during the process where a specific date can be identified as where a decision was made to not include certain elements of accommodation within the project.”
Councillor Macpherson’s Scottish Liberal Democrat colleague Stathmartine councillor Daniel Coleman added :
“We have concerns about lack of funding from Scottish Government for swimming. The UK Government some time ago created the Swimming Pool Support Fund to provide a total of £63 million to local authorities in England as a support package for public swimming.
“The Scottish Government received Scotland’s share of this funding through Barnett consequentials but on 7th July, Scottish Ministers admitted it has not been passed on to local authorities. Dundee has not seen a penny of this money and we think that’s disgraceful and that the Scottish Government should stop dragging its feet and release this swimming funding to local authorities urgently.”
In conclusion, Councillor Macpherson said, “We also disappointed about the inability of Leisure & Culture Dundee to maximise use of school swimming pools during the Olympia closure. I have continually raised the failure to maximise use of the good swimming facilities at Harris Academy for the public and – unbelievably - the swimming pool is completely closed during the school holidays due to a lack of electricity during the current phase of the school extension build, perhaps not the best timing in terms of the build schedule.
“Following the Olympia fiasco, the lack of swimming provision at the new £100 million EECC project and the failure to make best use of existing school pools, the Liberal Democrat group is calling for a proper strategy to promote and maximise use of swimming provision in Dundee and calls on Scottish Government to release the funds it has received to allow this to happen.”