Supporters fail to save city’s swimming pool after council takes ‘foolish’ decision to close
90-YEAR-OLD FACILITY ‘UNAFFORDABLE’ TO STAY OPEN ALONGSIDE £42M MOORWAYS
DERBY’S city centre swimming venue, Queen’s Leisure Centre, will close next year as the new £42 million Moorways Sports Village opens to the public - despite a petition and majority of people in a consultation opposing the closure.
An ill-tempered meeting of Derby City Council’s cabinet saw the decision made to close the 90-year-old facility in Cathedral Road, with the ruling Conservative group refusing to commit to ensuring the future of a swimming pool in the city centre.
At Tuesday night’s meeting of the council’s executive scrutiny board, led by Labour chair Councillor Martin Repton, it had been recommended the cabinet should “commit to a replacement centrally located pool IF after re-examination of the financials it cannot economically remain.
“We are demanding this, as 94% of respondents to the consultation, completed by 1,537 people, were either totally against the closure or had major reservations and concerns about leaving Derby with no pool.”
He continued his argument in the cabinet meeting on Wednesday afternoon, saying hundreds of people would be unable to access the Moorways venue because it is out of the city near Allenton.
Mr Repton said: “People have major concerns and you are not listening and should not be pressing ahead with this foolish closure.”
Councillor Chris Poulter, leader of the city council, confirmed the authority is working with bus companies to secure travel to the new Moorways complex.
He also said: “In 2017 Mr Repton, you were a member of the Labour cabinet which said the intention was to close Queen’s Leisure Centre when Moorways was completed and also your cabinet decided that the new pool complex would be at Moorways.
“Provision was made for repairs to the leisure centre and several million pounds set aside to keep the centre operating until 2021.”
He then accused Mr Repton of “hypocrisy”.
Cllr Ross McCristal, cabinet member for leisure, said that a petition, the consultation and current users of the Queen’s Leisure Centre had been taken into account in reaching the decision to close the venue.
He said that people would be delighted with an “out-of-town leisure facility with no car parking charges and no need to try to access the city centre”.
Mr McCristal said there was no business case to have a replacement swimming pool in the city. He said it would “unrealistic and unaffordable” and would lead to an “over-supply of swimming in the city”.
Originally in 2017, the Labour cabinet approved a £33 million project to build a new pool at Moorways.
When the Conservatives took control of the city council in 2018, they redrew the plans and included a leisure water park area into the complex, which added another £10 million to the final bill and leading to the facility being opened two years after the Labour plan would have come to fruition.
Councillor Baggy Shanker, Labour group leader, accused the cabinet of not making enough effort to keep the leisure centre open.
He said: “It might only be for a limited time but it should remain open and in the meantime, the council should look for alternative provision rather than ruling it out.
“Otherwise there won’t be any central provision for four or five years.”
A report, which went to the cabinet meeting, said estimates indicated that it would cost “in excess of £10 million” to keep the Queen’s Leisure Centre open.
And a Sport England report concluded that there was sufficient swimming provision in Derby until 2028 with the opening of Moorways and without Queen’s Leisure Centre.
The new Moorways centre is due to open in spring and will provide a 50m 10-lane swimming pool, teaching pool and water park, as well as a health and fitness suite, spa, studios, soft play area and café.
In contrast, Queen Street swimming baths was opened in 1932 and although it has three swimming pools, one is closed due to maintenance and health and safety issues.
During 2020, several further building condition and structural surveys took place on the centre.
This resulted in the teaching pool, teaching pool changing rooms and gym being closed until further notice due to concerns over the structural condition of these areas
Mr Poulter said that staff employed at the Queen’s Leisure Centre would be given the chance to transfer across to the new complex when it opened.
A date for the opening has still not been revealed. But he added there was a decision over what would happen to the former swimming baths and discussions were taking place to assess the situation in the Northern Gateway part of the city.