Councillors today voted to further explore the feasibility of reopening Leith Waterworld. Campaign group Splashback will now have council support during an 11-month development phase to establish whether the facility can be operated within the parameters of a finalised business plan.
The continuation of the bid beyond this phase is dependent on the community group securing the necessary capital funding to invest in the facility and, further, on their business plan meeting with the approval of an independent third party.
The council will release a maximum of £100,000 to help fund the feasibility study and a dedicated Councillor/ Officer Working-Group will be set up to support Splashback in developing their bid. A report on the results of the study will be considered by councillors once the development phase ends, following which a decision on the facility’s future will be taken.
Councillor Richard Lewis, Culture and Leisure Convener, said: “I want to acknowledge the considerable time and effort that Splashback have committed to their bid thus far. While there remains a tremendous amount of work to be done in the months ahead, we want to give the community the best possible chance of success by providing the necessary funding and support toward taking their proposals to the next phase. We owe it to the people of Edinburgh to do everything we can to preserve this valuable community asset.”
On 20 September, councillors had granted Splashback additional time, plus dedicated support from council officers, to present a more robust business case, and today’s decision has given the campaign group renewed hope that the facility can now be saved.
However Johnny Gailey, a founder member of the campaign, says the council decision is only a reprieve and there’s a lot of hard work to be done. “What’s been voted on today is a reprieve if you like – the council could be much more pro-active about exploring all the options, so we do feel this is an achievement but it’s not a result”, he said. “This is not our preferred option – our first choice was always that the pool should remain in public ownership. That’s been denied, and so we’ve been forced to think about second choices. We now have to put a call out to people in the wider community, and also to other third sector partners to help us with a bid. That call out will also be to Edinburgh Leisure and to the city council – they are part of the community too, and they need to be part of this process.”
Green Councillor for Leith Chas Booth supported the Splashback campaign and he is delighted with the council decision. He said: “I am delighted that the Council has seen the wisdom of backing community ownership of this much-loved asset and has seen the social, health and economic benefits of re-opening the pool. We now have a period of almost a year to finalise the business case and get children and other pool users back in the water.”
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