SWIMMERS HOPES SUNK BY OLYMPIC POOL

15-12-2008

Plans for a new Olympic-sized pool in Birmingham are expected to be rubber-stamped by the city’s Cabinet today – but as Steve Beauchampe argues, the cost will be paid by leisure swimmers at other public baths.

It should come as no surprise that Birmingham City Council may be forced to close some of its existing swimming pools to help meet the costs of building and (in particular) maintaining a new 50-metre pool, which it hopes to open in early 2012 on land opposite the National Indoor Arena for
Sport.

According to Friday's Birmingham Mail, a 'senior local authority official' admitted some of the city's older swimming venues may have to close to help bridge a multi-million pound funding gap.

While a report to be considered by today's Council Cabinet meeting proposes not only a new £60m Olympic standard facility, available for both elite swimmers and community use (and intended as a selling point to foreign Olympic delegations seeking training facilities prior to the 2012 London Games), but also a £12m investment in Stechford Cascades (opened in 1962) and a £12m replacement facility for Harborne Baths (dating from 1923), full details of how these costs will be met have still to be provided.

Birmingham's lack of swimming pool provision has become little short of disgraceful.

With no new facilities built for over 20 years, during which time several pools have closed permanently, the city falls far short of Sport England's targets for levels of water space provision (reaching a paltry 9.3sq.m of swimming pool space per 1,000 head of population compared to a national average of 13.1sq.m).

The actual deficiency has been even worse for some time, with Wyndley in Sutton closed for 30 months (it finally re-opens this week) and Sparkhill shut until at least February (a hiatus of no more three months was promised when it closed in June).

While few would doubt the value of a 50m pool, especially in such a central location, the idea that the long-term consequences might well involve the loss of community pools, or perhaps other much-needed leisure facilities, puts the benefits of such a 'bells and whistles' swimming amenity into sharp relief.

Yet precedents for such a course of events are not hard to find. When Manchester's Aquatics Centre opened in time for the 2002 Commonwealth Games, two of the city's other pools, at Harpurhey and Gorton, soon closed.

Neither do today's proposals address problems at Newtown Baths, where the spectator gallery is currently closed, or the parlous state of Moseley Road Baths, whose Gala Pool has lain dormant for over five years and where Council neglect of this nationally important Grade II* building has resulted in a substantial increase in projected repair costs.

Meanwhile, both Harborne and Stechford are in dire need of investment, structural problems at Harborne making a major re-build inevitable, while Stechford, like so many other pools of its vintage, already looks tired and old.

Despite the investment, Stechford's future may well be less glamorous than its past.

Currently home to the City of Birmingham Swimming Club, it is the city's largest swimming complex, comprising four pools, including a deep water pool for the staging of diving events, and with a capacious spectator gallery to allow for the hosting of galas.

Most of this activity can be expected to transfer to the new 50-metre pool complex, with Stechford becoming more akin to a community pool, albeit with modern facilities.

Meanwhile, some argue that the Council does insufficient to promote the use of it's existing network of pools.

Over Christmas and New Year many of the city's pools will close, or experience significantly reduced opening hours, for up to 10 days, precisely the period when users, especially children, are on holiday.

A recent initiative by the Heart of Birmingham Primary Care Trust offering all residents of Ladywood, Perry Barr and Hall Green constituencies free swimming has met with a muted response, with little or no publicity in at least one of the areas involved.

Indeed, one pool manager is reported to have been loath to publicise the offer for fear of overwhelming demand forcing him to turn away regulars.

With Government initiatives to get more people swimming set for implementation before 2012, an increasing population, and a growing recognition amongst health professionals that swimming can play a key role in combating such problems as heart disease, strokes and general levels of obesity, demand for water space in Birmingham can only rise, making the need for additional or refurbished pools even more acute.

The thought that the city may actually shut down more pools hardly bears contemplating.

While the concept of building a 50-metre pool in Birmingham has been around for a long time, the proposals being debated today were only made public in the middle of last week, and there is more than a hint that members will be steamrollered into supporting them in the rush to have showcase facilities completed before the Olympics.

Cabinet members (not least the Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee) should ask very searching questions (and expect detailed answers) of Council Leader Mike Whitby and Leisure Service Chief Ray Hassell before approving such plans.

A failure to do so may be beneficial to a few overseas Olympic swimmers... but a lot less so for Birmingham citizens.

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