As it happens...

Cartoon courtesy of Frank Boyle, (published in Evening News, Fri 1 Feb 2013)

Dear Friends and supporters

Many of you will know, but great news! Last Thursday the City of Edinburgh Council agreed to work with us over the next 11 months to secure a future for Leith Waterworld. Obviously we are all elated - to get this far has been a huge amount of work, but we always believed that if we could articulate what Waterworld uniquely offered children, familes and the disabled across the city, AND show the depth of community support then we could get the Councillors on board.

Listening to the Councillors in the Chamber last Thursday, we were delighted to hear that the pressing social case for reopening the pool is now recognised and that the 'value' of the amenity is understood as not just being the cost of keeping the facility open, but also all the benefits that reopening brings to the community - i.e. it's true 'value'.

We knew that it was going to be a difficult decision for councillors to reject the officials report(which recommended rejecting our bid), but we believe it is the right decision. Now that the Councillors have endorsed our business plan, we can sit down with them and the officials, all with the same shared goal - how to reopen leith Waterworld. It has been a lot of hard work to get this far, and we know that there is a lot more hard work before we can reopen the facility - we need additional skills in governance, fundraising, pool operation and maintenance, engineering, heating, green energy, catering, etc.. - but now that we have this endorsement we can know gather the skills we need and work co-operatively to bring this fantastic facility back to life.

We're truly appreciative of all the support the campaign has had over the past 14 months  - from people willing to get involved, to emails and messages of support from the community, from various agencies and local businesses to councillors advocating on our behalf...  In fact, these are not just supporters OF the campaign - they ARE the campaign...  In the Chamber last week, Leith councillor, Gordon Munro, said "We can do something special here..." We truly believe that...

Lots more to follow, but for now: You can listen to the deputation and the debate here, via the Council's webcast - drop down the timeline on right to 9.45 for start of deputation)

Here's the news as reported in Fridays Evening News and on STV 

And below is a compilation of the action live, as it unfolded in the Chamber, from Twitter...

Water under the bridge

 

 This time last year, in January 2012, the doors to Leith Waterworld were locked and the pool drained as the facility was officially closed.  One year on, January 2013, and (excuse me) a lot of water under the bridge and Splashback are pleased to announce that we have submitted a bold plan to the Council to reopen the  facility under community management.  

Supporters will be aware that we submitted a bid to take over the facility as a community run leisure pool, when the closing date for the site was originally set for 7 August last year.  In September, the Council met to discuss the offers for the site, which in fact amounted to one - ours.  Whilst the councillors rejected the bid on the basis that it was 'commercially unacceptable' they saw the merit in pursuing our idea, and offered us a further four months to revise the bid, with the additional support and resources of the council.  Our deadline for resubmission was 31 January. 

Well,  yesterday, after a lot of hard work and number crunching, we re-submitted our revised plan, a whole 9 days ahead of schedule! So what does the plan suggest? We have attached an executive summary below with our key points, highlighting both the social case for reopening and the financial case.  We now believe we have got a solid case for reopening, but then we would say that!  In fact our figures and assumptions have been tested through independent analysis. We have been able to engage both pool specialists and community enterprise experts to flesh out our ideas.  We have got comparative costs for facilities in Scotland and the Council officials themselves have provided us with an assessment of the economic impact of reopening the facility.

Through running the facility as a community led iniatitive, we believe we can 

• provide a fun and enjoyable leisure destination for over 150,000 users per annum
• reduce the subsidy required from Council for the pool to well under the Scottish average for pools - £260,000
• In fact through increased soft play and additional revenue streams, we can bring the subsidy right down to circa £20,000 by year 3
• In doing so we would bring potentially approx 60 jobs to the Leith area through direct employment and supply chains
• and generate an additional £460,000 for the local Leith economy.
• These benefits are in addition to the potential saving to public spending through increased wellbeing in the area.  

We will be asking the Council on 31st January for an agreement in principle, to allow us to progress with more detailed planning and fundraising.  At the end of six months, we would take the shared decision with the Council whether to progress to reopening, which is currently rescheduled for October 2013.
 

At various points during the last four months we have, out of necessity, been inside Waterworld.  Whilst outside the building looks dilapidated, inside it is clear that we have a substantial, well-loved and importantly well-maintained asset.  We want the best for Leith.  Waterworld cost £14m twenty years ago, and  to rebuild it now would be well over £20m.

With the massive success of the Olympics and the Paralympics last year and the Commonwealth Games next year, there is much talk, at the moment, of 'legacy'.  There appears to be a growing awareness and understanding that yes whilst these elite events can provide an amazing spectacle, more than that participation and sport can make a real difference at community level. Dundee Council are currently building a new leisure pool at the cost of £31m, as are Perth at the cost of £15m.  Edinburgh has had no leisure pool for over a year.  We hope that the Council after reading our business plan, share with us, the desire to rectify that and reopen Leith Waterworld.

Please do email your local councillor if you too share our aim to reopen Waterworld.

Splashback Summary Jan13 by splashback

Baby steps!

 
This weekend, Splashback held our first birthday party! A bouncy castle, drawing activities, a campaign update, architect's drawings, the launch of the 'Splashback' wristband, a singalong and a cake!! 

Over seventy supporters dropped by to catch up with our progress, as we work towards resubmitting our bid at the end of January 2013 - great to see both old and new faces there!!

For those who couldn't make it - here's a wee slideshow we presented with the highlights of the campaign's first year!!