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| Fun at the Leith Gala |
Lots of people have been asking us what's happening with the campaign to re-open Leith Waterworld - we have, following the Council's decision to put the sale of the ground lease for the site on hold for six months until 7 August, been busy working towards building a community bid. Last Friday the new administration invited Splashback to join an internal briefing to new Leith/Leith Walk councillors on the current situation with Leith Waterworld. Below is the text of the briefing which we put together for the meeting on Tuesday...
"If
the RCP is the ‘jewel in the crown’ of the Council/Edinburgh Leisure's swimming portfolio, then Leith Waterworld is the'
ugly duckling' . The motion in Feb was to delay the sale of LWW
to see if a community bid might be forthcoming. It was
important to us, that Splashback was not mentioned in this motion –
we always said that we were just one part of a community and that
others would be needed. I don’t need to say that we consider
the Council to be part of that community.
So what have we been
doing for the last four months?
We have undertaken an
extensive survey of the alternative sites both within and outwith
Edinburgh, through our Homeless Itinerant Bathing Society (Edinburgh Branch) project –
and we believe that we have comprehensively proved that there is
nothing like LWW available locally. We have always said that
Leith Waterworld is not a swimming pool – that it’s a playpark
with water. Edinburgh Leisure is in agreement with us that there is
now a gap in their portfolio.
We have been working on
a business model, looking at future ways to increase the revenue
whilst reducing the expenditure and we believe we have got a model
that works, and that brings the subsidy required down to under the
Scottish average of £2.18 per visitor, which would equate, according
to the final years attendance, to a annual subsidy of £260,000.
We believe that this makes this an issue of equality – we are not
asking for more than is average. These figures have been
discussed, tested and found to be credible in our meeting with
council officials on 25th
May.
There is no doubt that they is
more to be done on the figures – our projections don’t include
any projected new income streams – such as an increased soft
play/classes or increased opening hours. We also need to input the
alternative pricing options we have uncovered through our market
research. All of this takes time – a business plan is solely
an exercise if it is not credible. At our meeting with
officials it was great to test this, but we would value further
expertise from the Council.
All business plans are built
on solid, robust market research. We have sought comparators –
Wester Hailes Pool and Dunbar Pool – and it is fair to say we have
been frustrated in our efforts. People, I would suggest, view
us as an itch rather than credible which is as you can imagine
incredibly frustrating – we need the weight of the Council to
assist us with this.
We have designed a survey and
taken it out on a roadshow – from the Parents Like Us festival, to
outside LWW itself, at the Leith Gala Day and hopefully this Sunday,
Edinburgh Leisure permitting, at Royal Commonwealth Pool.
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| Leith Gala Day - running on Polish techno! |
We have had numerous meetings
to build a community of support for what we are trying to do – this
is my fifth meeting this week alone! We are going to the Senscot
Sport and Social Enterprise Conference in Glasgow this week to hear
about other models of community run facilities in Scotland and
further afield.
We have secured offers of help
from:
- Leith Community
Council
- Leith Links
Community Council
- Leith Traders
Association
- SENScot
- Community
Enterprise Scotland
- SportsScotland
- Community
Development Trusts Association
- The Atlantis
Community Leisure Pool, Oban
- David Lloyd Leisure
– who are willing to get us an independent look at Edinburgh
Leisure’s capital estimates
- Various Councillors
- Not least the
support of the public in Leith and in the wider Edinburgh community.
All of this takes time to
build and time to secure. We have met with council officials to
discuss our potential bid, and in truth, we feel we have the door has
been answered but the Council are not sure whether to let us in yet.
At the moment we have got
various parties to the table: the one seat not taken up is that of
the Council.
We are pleased that perhaps we
are seeing a more co-operative approach – our invite today is proof
we hope of the new administration’s desire to be a co-operative
Council. We hope that this co-operation will continue…
Please don’t doubt the
sincerity of our effort, the scale of the effort in terms of
voluntary labour goner into this, and our desire to convert this
investment of effort to build a positive solution that provides
increased leisure opportunities to Leith but as importantly to all of
Edinburgh and its visitors – a win-win for all involved.
In terms of the briefing today
– we don’t want to rake over the past, but we believe that the
decision taken in 2005 is redundant – those were the good times –
everyone was high – Edinburgh was in the middle of a property boom.
Trams were going to come to Leith as part of a network across the
city; a million homes were to be built as part of the stock transfer;
Western Harbour was to be a flowering of a Riviera, a new European
style Leith – buoyed by foreign investment, and employment was at a
record high. At that time, the decision was part of a wider review
into the city’s national and regional sporting infrastructure.
The name of the game was to be competitive – to compete with other
cities. The decision needs to be seen in that context.
And then the crash happened.
The plan that this formed part
of is now in bits – no community stadium in Sighthill (despite
£1.2m spent on design); no refurb of Meadowbank due to a fall in
property prices; no football academy at Hunters Hall; the bailout of
Ratho had cost the public purse some £11m since 2005; the RCP
project has been completed but at the cost of £7m over the agreed
2009 figure. City Park? Even the officials are not sure if it has
been sold.
The sole part of the plan
going through unchanged is to deal to sell Leith Waterworld for a
hopeful figure of £1.5m, although again there is uncertainly about
the funding gap at the RCP. And yet since the decision was taken in
2005, LWW gets an average £100,000 more income per annum.
We think we need to now
consider the future of this site within the context of a recession
and the impact that this has had on people’s lives…
Now, whenever I go to buy a
choc ice, I don’t just take into account the price tag alone. Yes,
I look at what it costs but I also look at what’s inside; how much
chocolate there is, how cool it will make me feel and how luxurious
the taste is – and I weight up whether I think its worth the price
tag – it’s value.
We believe you’re being
presented with the price tag, without an understanding of the value –
we believe that best value is not the cost alone – its what’s
valuable. I’ll come to the costs, but first I want to look at
this value…
On Monday Alan Wells was quoted in the papers saying Scottish Kids need “a kick up the
backside’. They don’t, they need local local facilities – we
prefer the carrot to the stick.
More revealing in the article
was the statistics that:
- 27% of Scottish
children aged 2 – 5 yrs are overweight
- 17% of them obese.
(This
is 2 – 5 yrs olds olds…) Exactly who LWW provides for.
- 1 in 3 kids leave
primary school not being able to swim
- 1 in 3 children in
Leith live in poverty.
- Free primary
swimming was scrapped by Edinburgh Leisure in Jan 2010, resulting
( from our reading of the stats and contested by EL) in an almost halving of numbers
of primary aged children swimming (25,000 instead of 40,000 per annum).
Leith Waterworld had in the
last year 126,000 visits.
- It provided a space
for families, living in cramped conditions, to get out from under
each other’s feet and enjoy each other, building healthy
relationships
- It provided a pool
where disabled users could enter and exit with dignity, rather than
being hoisted in and out
- It brought 48,000
people from throughout Edinburgh to Leith – think of the impact to
the local economy.
- And 12,000 from
outwith Edinburgh – it was a tourist attraction
- And all this
achieved without any active marketing since 2005.
Splashback is not coming to
Council pleading that it is reopened – we have put the begging bowl
away. We are coming to you with the facts about the impact of the
closure. We would love to see what studies the Council or
Edinburgh Leisure have done on this?
Our survey (we currently have
some 600 responses) shows that of our respondents:
We asked ‘Are you and your
family swimming less since the closure of LWW?", and 67% said yes – I
know this from my own family’s experience.
89% said they would prefer to
use LWW to other pools were it to reopen
The top three groups that
respondents thought LWW was particularly important to were:
- Families with young
children
- Disabled Users
- Single parent
families
The top three improved
amenities were:
- A Café
- Enlarged and
improved soft play facilities
- Parent and Baby
classes
84% of respondents would pay
£12 or higher for a family swim (which was £8.60)
Nearly half would pay £6 for
an adult swim
69% of people would consider
an annual swim membership
We believe that a reopened
facility would be a fantastic opportunity for this council to make
its mark. To state its intention to listen and co-operate with
communities. To put community desires ahead of party politics.
Splashback has done what it can, within the time allocated to make
this a reality, but we don’t doubt the amount of work still to be
done, but we would really value the Council’s support and help.
We think that this could be a co-operative community flagship.
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| Splashback at the Senscot national conference on Sports and Social Enterprise in Glasgow, June 2012 |
Finally the figures:
There are only three figures
you need to know.
- The ongoing
subsidy. We believe and that we can get this down to under the
Scottish average annual subsidy for swimming pools (which would equate to
£260,000, reducing as we expand and add to income streams). This
has been investigated with Council officials and requires further input on our business model.
- The costs of
capital refurbishment. Edinburgh Leisure have given us estimates
which we would like to have independent verification of. It's
entirely understandable that EL haven't spent too long on the
assessment, as after all there’s no benefit to EL as it was a
Council decision. To date, they are all we're got. Their estimates say:
- £155,000 to
recommission/reopen the facility
- £800,000 over the
next five years
- £2.2m over the
next 10 years
All capital costs we believe
would sourced, not from Council coffers, but from national
regeneration schemes, sourced in partnership with the Council
·
People and
Communities Fund
·
Jessica Fund
·
BIG Lottery
fund
·
Social
Enterprise funding streams
·
Social
Investment Funds
·
Inspiring
Scotland
Resulting in zero impact to
council budgets.
- Finally the cost of
the capital sale of the ground lease, to plug the RCP funding gap.
Originally this was to be £1m, with any additional monies pledged
to Leith based swimming facilities. Although there is a lack of
clarity on this position now, even amongst council officials.
Currently it is mooted that £1.5m is needed from LWW sale, with
£1.5m from City Park sale – however Council officials cannot even
tell us if City Park has been sold yet. Irregardless of whether it
£1m or £1.5m, this is the sum that we are talking about, not the
£5.089m alluded to in the briefing provided to Councillors. That
£4.089 has been dealt with and allocated as part of the RCP
prudential borrowing scheme…
Councilors,
the most important thing about today it that we have the chance to
represent ourselves, rather than be represented. And apologies
from other campaigners, who couldn’t make it today due to the very
short notice given.
For
us, this marks a more listening and respectful approach. We
take heart from this – we are pleased that we are starting to see
signs of co-operation. We are heartened by the administrations
talk of a co-operative council, heartened by plans for setting up a
Co-operative Development Unit within the Council to assist
communities in exactly this sort of project, and heartened and by the
national SNP’s recently announced Community Empowerment Bill.
All
this starts to signal to us, a Council that wants to work in tandem
with communities and not against them.
We
would, ideally, like to put Splashback to bed – to launch
Springboard – a new partnership that considers the future of LWW
with all the seriousness and respect that this issue deserves. But
we are not blind - ultimately we want to see if reopening LWW is
feasible. If it’s not, lets not do it. If it is, then lets work
together towards that end.
