Issue - meetings

To consider the report of the Strategic Director for Place.

Agreed:

RESOLVED that:

1.    the Executive agrees to the of closure of Northbrook Swimming Pool, based on the consideration of key income and expenditure reports, information gathered following public consultation and the Equalities Impact Assessment (EQIA).

2.    the Executive delegates authority to the Strategic Director for Place, in consultation with the Leader to undertake the closure of the facility.

3.    that support is provided to existing members and users, including local schools, in transitioning to alternative Exeter Leisure facilities.

4.    any increase in costs to the Leisure Services to be reported back to the Executive and Council for approval.

5.    as recommended by Scrutiny, Executive asks officers to facilitate a discussion with the Northbrook Trust and interested parties, including community groups, on the possibility of community ownership.

Reason for Decision: As set out in the report and amended at the meeting.

The Strategic Director for Place presented the report and gave a presentation (slides attached), making the following points:

·         no decision had been taken to close the pool at the time of budget-setting, nor until full consultation and impact assessment had been carried out;

·         there was a legal requirement to undertake an Equality Impact Assessment(EQIA);

·         a balance must be struck between reductions in the leisure service aside maintaining the pool;

·         a saving was required to maintain a legally balanced budget;

·         the spend on Northbrook Pool was more than the income raised through use of the pool;

·         the Building was owned by the Northbrook Community Trust and leased to the Council, with 70-years remaining;

·         a significant investment in the building was necessary to bring the building up to industry standards;

·         investment to reduce carbon emissions was necessary and to make the building DDA compliant;

·         the Financial case for works was based on  estimates as quotes were not available at this time;

·         the public consultation detail could be found at Appendix B. Time and effort had gone into the design of the consultation to receive rich qualitative data and understand the real life impacts;

·         the EQIA could be found at Appendix C and highlighted the negative impacts on those with protected characteristics;

·         a closure plan would be a technical process and would support leisure members and users (including schools) to transition to other leisure facilities, including our other two swimming pools and to utilise the portfolio of services the council had;

·         the council was fortunate to have dedicated, knowledgeable staff and if necessary there would be a process to protect them utilising the organisational change process; and

·         there would be a de-commissioning process which would include emptying the pool and officers would work with Members and users, including schools, and listen, support and enable them to continue at other facilities.

During discussion, Executive Members raised the following points and questions:

·         concern for those with autism and mental health conditions was highlighted and it was asked whether groups were consulted with when SSP was designed;

·         as part of mitigation could staff arrange a quiet, relaxed session for those with autism or SEND children or adults to see the other pool and have a swim as some anxiety maybe around not knowing what to expect;

·         how much would it cost to bring the pool back to a state of repair in accordance with the lease in order to hand back;

·         the portfolio holder, Councillor Wood stated that a good discussion had been held at the Customer Focus Scrutiny meeting and that he was proud of the leisure service with 5 large centres and one smaller one which had seen 1.8million visits over the last year and asked how many people had attended Northbrook, relative to this number;

·         Northbrook represented 9% of the Council’s carbon emissions and asked that the reason for decarbonisation funding having been unsuccessful or not pursued be reiterated;

·         how many pools within the Exeter area were open to the public;

·         Councillor Ruth  ...  view the full minutes text for item 48