Petition Call for council to reopen community pool
A1,300-NAME petition claiming it would be “criminal negligence” to close Jubilee Pool permanently has been delivered to Bristol City Council.
Lib Dem group leader Cllr Gary Hopkins presented it at a meeting of full council last week as he urged Marvin Rees to “stop playing fantasy games” and reopen the much-loved swimming pool in Knowle.
It comes after a letter signed by 15 cross-party councillors was sent to the city mayor last month demanding he secure the centre’s future.
Jubilee Pool has been shut since the first lockdown in March.
The local authority says it cannot afford to reopen it and launched a public consultation in August on its permanent closure.
Cllr Hopkins told city council members’ forum on Tuesday, November 10: “The cross-party working group, with Conservative, Labour and Lib Dem councillors, unanimously recommended to the mayor that in the short term Jubilee Pool be reopened because it was just as cheap to reopen as it was to keep it closed.
“We cannot obviously have magicked up a long-term solution in a matter of a couple of months.”
Mr Rees replied: “You’re quite remarkable because you do go on about Jubilee Pool in spite of the history.
“It’s not a couple of months, you’ve had 10 years to come up with a solution ever since you signed the PFI (private finance initiative) that was based on the business case to close Jubilee Pool.
“We continue to work with the operators looking at pool capacity and making sure there is swimming pool provision within the city.
“We are waiting for the results of the consultation to see if there is a workable plan that can be brought forward.”
Cllr Hopkins said: “We are not making any criticism of the PFI passed in detail by the 2008 Labour cabinet.
“It produced the Hengrove pool which is of great benefit to the city, but it is very different to Jubilee Pool.”
Speaking at full council later that evening, he said: “The organisation Friends of Jubilee Pool is growing in numbers and strength and this issue will not go away.
“The mayor needs to listen to his own councillors, the cross-party group which has said this pool should now reopen under the present management until 2022, which is what is in the contract.
“Please stop playing fantasy games and can we now get on with getting this pool reopened?”
The petition, signed by 1,369 people, says it would be “criminal negligence to let a vital community resource slip away because the council has a short-term finance problem”.
It says: “We recognise that preCovid the pool was operating at a small profit but more importantly it is vital for local health and wellbeing.
“A small capital investment is needed to protect it for the next 20 years and would support a local notfor-profit trust taking over the management, if the council are unable to organise themselves to manage it.”
The 15-member cross-party group was set up as a result of a Labour amendment during a heated council meeting last month where members debated a 4,700-name petition from campaigners.
The amended motion called on the mayor to extend the public consultation by a month and task the working group with finding potential solutions, such as the community buying the pool to run themselves.
Mr Rees has publicly backed this option, which officers had previously ruled out.
Parkwood Leisure is contracted to run the pool until March 2022.
A cabinet decision on the pool’s long-term future is due in January.