D Day for Leith Waterworld

Councillors will decide today (31 January) whether to back a community bid to operate Leith Waterworld.

An officer report, which will be considered at today’s council meeting, concludes that the revised business case submitted by campaign group, Splashback, is not commercially viable and does not offer best value to the Council, and recommends that the property be remarketed for sale. However campaigners believe that their plans do stack up and that Leith Waterdworld could be reopened as early as October this year.

Councillors agreed on 20 September to offer an extension to the campaigners and to provide dedicated assistance from the Council’s Economic Development unit to enable them to prepare a more robust business case.

The revised submission features two options: the first would be to operate the venue using its existing facilities; the second would add a large soft play feature in the glass entrance atrium and create a new café.

Both options would still require a significant ongoing subsidy from the Council, for which no budget currently exists, and neither would generate the funds required to help pay for the recently completed refurbishment of the Royal Commonwealth Pool.

The process had previously been postponed for six months to allow Splashback to come forward with alternative proposals for the pool, which has been closed since January 2012. This followed a decision taken in 2005 to put the property up for sale.

Splashback, the community group set up to save Leith Waterworld, believes their figures stack up. They claim:

• provide a fun and enjoyable leisure destination for over 150,000 users per annum
• reduce the subsidy required from Council for the pool to well under the Scottish average for pools – £260,000
• In fact through increased soft play and additional revenue streams, we can bring the subsidy right down to circa £20,000 by year 3
• In doing so we would bring potentially approx 60 jobs to the Leith area through direct employment and supply chains
• and generate an additional £460,000 for the local Leith economy.
• These benefits are in addition to the potential saving to public spending through increased wellbeing in the area.

We will be asking the Council on 31st January for an agreement in principle, to allow us to progress with more detailed planning and fundraising.  At the end of six months, we would take the shared decision with the Council whether to progress to reopening, which is currently rescheduled for October 2013.”

Splashback conclude: “With the massive success of the Olympics and the Paralympics last year and the
Commonwealth Games next year, there is much talk, at the moment, of ‘legacy’. There appears to be a growing awareness and understanding that yes whilst these elite events can provide an amazing spectacle, more than that participation and sport can make a real difference at community level. Dundee Council are
currently building a new leisure pool at the cost of £31m, as are Perth at the cost of £15m.  Edinburgh has had no leisure pool for over a year.  We hope that the Council after reading our business plan, share with us, the desire to rectify that and reopen Leith Waterworld.”

Cllr Richard Lewis, Culture and Leisure Convener, said: “I said previously that I would be delighted if an affordable and achievable community bid came forward and I acknowledge the time and effort that Splashback have invested in this. We gave the group the opportunity to bring back a more robust bid and it is now up to us as councillors to consider the arguments and reach a decision in the best interests of the city.”

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