Broomhill Pool and the General Election - update March 2010

Back in the autumn of 2009, Ipswich Borough Council advertised for "Expressions of Interest" in the Broomhill Pool site, with a closing date of October 23rd 2009. The Council referred in the advertisement to recreational and leisure use for the site but, very cleverly, did not stipulate that the pool must be kept as a pool.

In December 2009 the Executive met and formally resolved to pursue Option 2 of a range of options ie pursuing this option of an outside operator for the Broomhill Pool site; they also removed the offer of the million pounds towards restoration - it was due to expire on 31st December 2009 and the Executive chose not to extend the offer past this date.

Despite the loss of the million pounds, the press coverage immediately after this was positively euphoric "Hopes high for future of pool" ran the headline in the Star Advertiser (December 24th 2009) "Hopes rose last week that Broomhill Pool could be open for business again in the summer of 2013. Members of the borough's Executive approved a proposal to hand over the lido to a private sector operator who would restore the pool and bring it back into use."

(There was zero mention in the glowing publicity that the Council might consider bids from operators who did not want to re-open the pool as a pool.)

However, the Council stated publicly in December 2009 that three operators wanted to pursue the matter and February 10th 2010 was given as the deadline for proposals to be submitted. I tabled Questions at the Ipswich Borough Council meeting in February about the timetable for considering the operators' bids and was told that a fourth operator had now emerged and that the deadline had been extended to the end of March. Therefore it is obviously going to be April, at the very earliest, before the bids are evaluated and this will effectively rule out a declaration before the General Election. This is not a good sign - if there was genuinely good news for Broomhill Pool then the Council Executive would undoubtedly be sharing that with the electors.

As a further twist to the tale the Cultural and Leisure Needs Analysis conducted by PMP Genesis and made public in February 2010 stated that the Council had not identified any private sector interest in managing the Pool:

Paragraph 3:56 Broomhill Pool, a 50 metre outdoor pool with Grade II status, closed in 2002 and has remained closed since. The Broomhill Trust is a significant lobbying group which aims to restore Broomhill Pool for full public use. A feasibility study commissioned by the Trust and completed in 2006 suggested that that the Pool can be restored, with 9 months work, at a cost of £3.9 million. The future of the Pool therefore relies on gaining further lottery and government funds and securing a suitable pool operator.

Paragraph 3:57 It is understood that Council discussions with private sector operators have not identified private sector interest in managing the Pool. This is in keeping with pmpgenesis' experience of the market where private sector operators are not typically interested in outdoor swimming pools since their financial sustainability is too contingent on the weather.

It needs to be particularly noted that the above statements are being made in a survey designed to carry the council through to 2015 and this will be treated as the official version of what those needs are and what the resources are. PMPGenesis have painted a negative view of the lido and there is no recognition at all that a number of lidos have been successfully saved and restored elsewhere in the country.