Issue - meetings

The Lord Mayor invited Angela Martin to speak on behalf of the petition organiser, who presented and spoke on the following petition, entitled “Save Northbrook Pool” which had gained 2231 signatures.

“Lord Mayor, Councillors, no decision can justly be made about closing Northbrook Swimming Pool without data verified as accurate. Leisure services are looking for a £586,000 cut in budget. We have worked out ways to cover this. We are told the three swimming pools have 12,000 members. If only half of them paid a membership fee equal to that charged by other Devon towns the resulting income would be in the region of £590,000. Cuts covered.  In addition, the lease with Northbrook Trust left is much longer than the 15 years needed for ECC to make a commitment to Northbrook swimming pool to receive a grant from Sport England and Swim England. This grant has been approved before but someone in ECC believed the lease was left only 9 years and not the 70-odd our information tells us and so turned it down. This could be re-applied for.

The Willow Grange development increasing the population close to Northbrook swimming pool will yield a CIL of £818,772 this could also be used, even in part for maintenance and upgrading the building which has been sorely neglected. Then there is the matter of managing the income of the pools. £60,000 of club fees were not included in the figures presented in February.  The Leader of WEFTE was left holding £7,000 worth of fees because no one knew how to process it. It is too easy to walk into Northbrook for a pay as you go swim with no one on the desk to take the money. So, we have no idea the total losses made in this way, and it does mean that Exeter City Council has no idea how many people are using the pool because it is not recorded.

Membership is across the three pools, so this is no indicator either of the number of members who use Northbrook. Nor do we know the savings in the long run for the NHS or the care services because people are using Northbrook to help their physical and mental wellbeing often on doctor’s orders.

It is an important facility for the local schools who are bound by the national curriculum to ensure their pupils can swim. Its small size, quietness, calm and closed environment and friendly atmosphere is where the school can provide its own 1:1 supervision. Makes it a safe place for the students of Ellen Tinkham School who are autistic and have sensory disorders. Why seek an alternative when we already have one here.

Because the prescribed characteristics of the majority of the clientele using Northbrook, ECC would need to be very careful it does not fall foul of the 2010 Equality Act. If you want to keep it, you should use it – well it’s difficult if you don’t finish work before three o’clock which is when the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 40