Muddied waters in sale of Hassy Baths
“DEAL Done. Always good to get a deal over the line before Christmas. We have completed the sale of the former Haslingden Baths to a private buyer.”
So the news emerged that Haslingden Baths has been sold. The news didn’t come from the council, but from Taylor Weaver, the company hired to sell the baths, originally proposed to help the people of Haslingden be healthy back in 1908, funded with public money in 1936… and closed when it was deemed more important to redirect money towards the new bus station in Rawtenstall in 2015.
At time of writing, there’s still been no formal announcement from the council. It has its own ‘news website’ which hasn’t shared the news yet. Rumours are rife in Haslingden as to what the new buyer will do with the site.
The good news for the council is that, according to the Taylor Weaver website, the rates the new owner pays to the council may go up depending on what they choose to use it for.
The bad news for the council is that, once again, they have shown a remarkable lack of consideration towards the people of Haslingden when it comes to the Baths.
It’s worth remembering that the pool wasn’t shut because of council funding cuts which, in fairness, have been huge over the last decade. The council took the decision to close the pool because the money it had to build a new one in Haslingden it wanted instead to use to fund the purchase of the Valley Centre in Rawtenstall.
Council have to take tough decisions, of course, but they can at least handle them well. The Valley Centre was a bleak landmark in Rawtenstall, but five years on, the bus station is only just built and there’s still confusion about what will be put on the rest of the site.
The current proposal is a spa - fittings for which will be supported using another council loan, according to council documents from last year.
Haslingden lost its swimming pool to fund a spa in Rawtenstall - the election literature for the Conservatives should write itself in May.
It wasn’t as if Haslingden failed to put up a fight to keep the baths. A community group was founded, funds were raised - but the battle to keep the baths was so much harder when the council insisted on closing the baths in the first place.
Other public facilities have moved out of council control in recent years, with much support from the council to make sure they are successful. Ski Rossendale, for example, or the Whitaker in Rawtenstall. Why wasn’t the same support offered to the people offering to take on Haslingden Baths?
Even now, when sold, the only clue Haslingden residents have to any change is the appearance of fences around the site and a new sign from the estate agent.
It’s not too late for Rossendale Council to make some sort of amends. It could, for starters, confirm who has bought the pool, and for how much, and commit that the money only gets spent in Haslingden.
And given it has found the political will to take out various loans to support other projects in the borough in the last few years, maybe it should be asking why it isn’t taking out a new loan to help fund the new baths which Haslingden was promised over a decade ago.