Swimmers in fresh push for pool opening on a Sunday
Crowdfunding provides cash to pay staff for a year
FOR generations it has held out as one of the last outposts where observance of the Sabbath holds sway, with Sunday a day given over to rest and religious observance.
But now tensions are rising in the Western Isles after a determined community group chipped away at the belief “thou shalt not” do stuff on the Lord’s Day with a spirited campaign to have the local swimming pool opened.
Families into Sport for Health (FiSH) have been fighting their Western Isles Council for Sunday pool access in Stornoway for a number of years.
On Friday the latest avenue of attack on the practise of closing the pool on Sunday came as the group delivered a cheque for £11,400 raised through crowdfunding to pay for staff for a year.
The group says that the council has continually denied their request for Sunday openings, and claim, the reasons have changed with each round of mounting pressure from the community.
Religious belief has loomed large in the dispute, with one councillor initially saying: “It is a matter of conscience for me as I have to stand up for what I believe in and that is in God.”
And another responded: “Before my election, my personal leaflet distributed to the electorate stated a commitment to uphold Christian values “if elected” and I believe the fourth commandment, ‘remembering the Sabbath day, to keep it holy’ is one such value.”
When FiSH submitted a follow-up request in October, councillors voted 19-9 against a year’s trial run to open the Lewis Sports Centre and swimming pool for three hours each Sunday due to the costs plus the lack of staff willing to work.
The community group then turned to crowdfunding to raise the money directly from their community – along with donations from the Scottish Secular Society (SSS) and the National Secular Society. But this too has been rejected by the local council, which accused the group of an “astonishing amount of ignorance” about the islands when it was revealed the money would be presented to the council.
Now FiSH has vowed to fight on, saying it will not walk away from the issue.
Pauline Matterson, of FiSH’s management committee, has been living in Stornoway since arriving from Canada two years ago.
She said: “Over the years the council have changed their position, and this is our latest attempt to get them to change their minds. There has always been a lack of engagement, but now we hope to get a clear answer on why they won’t open the pool.
“And they are wrong to think that this is the end of it if the money is not accepted. We represent more than 1,500 households in Lewis and Harris, and around 70 per cent of the pool’s users supported Sunday access.”
Over the years, Sabbatarianism has become a burning issue on the Western Isles, with the last major disruption to the practice coming in 2009 when Sunday ferry sailings were launched to Lewis. The SSS has vowed to back FiSH.
A Western Isles Council spokesman said: “The SSS is mistaken in a number of its assertions which display an astonishing amount of ignorance about both the comhairle (council) and the islands. Councillors take decisions based on a number of factors, including the views of people in their wards. There has been no change in position.” WAS it wearing flares in the seventies that made young men in Glasgow vandals? I think there may be a link.
This is the then notorious Blackhill housing scheme in Glasgow in 1976 where a group of local chaps are entertaining themselves by tearing the wood off boarded up windows and throwing them on their makeshift fire.
‘‘ We represent more than 1,500 households, and around 70 per cent of pool users support Sunday access