A community group who came together to save their local swimming pool are in a race against time to raise tens of thousands of pounds - after their plans to save it were hit by a massive energy bill rise. The volunteers from the Friends of the Jubilee Pool have been working tirelessly for more than two years to put together an organisation to take over the running of the pool, after Bristol City Council pulled the funding plug and said the pool would close if no one came forward to take it on.
But with just a few weeks to go before the group was set to take over, a new energy bill arrived. The increase in energy bills has meant the cost of running and heating the pool could increase from £120,000 to £330,000.
The increase has caused the pool operator who agreed to run the pool for them to pull out, with the deadline for handover of September 30 looming. Now, the Friends of Jubilee Pool are in a race against time to raise around £30,000 to at least keep the pool open for the winter, with existing operating company Parkwood offering to keep going for the time being.
Read more: Jubilee Pool - council offers deal
The Friends say they now have some difficult decisions, but are desperate to keep the pool open and are appealing for help to do so, describing the revised energy bill as a ‘bomb’ going off under their plans. “Over the last couple of months we had found a friendly operator to run the pool, produced an amazing business plan and all was ticking along nicely, then the utility bomb went off,” said a spokesperson.
“The operator was not willing to stomach the additional £120,000-£330,000 uplift and told the Friends we would need to cover these costs ourselves - how we laughed,” she added.
The voluntary group said they have considered a range of options aimed at, at the very least, keeping the pool open in the long run. They included shutting the pool during the winter, reducing the temperature of the water and ‘providing wetsuits’, reducing the operating hours, taking the roof off, but ‘none of which were viable’.
In the short term, the pool does have one option - existing operator Parkwood, which run many of Bristol’s other public pools and leisure centres, offered to give the Friends group more time by keeping the pool running for another six months and taking advantage of their existing energy bill tariff - albeit that bill has risen by £70,000 for the next six months alone.
“We have funds in the bank from the Swimathon and various grants that will see us through the first three months, but to cover the following three months we will need to fundraise like crazy and raise £20,000-£30,000 by the end of December,” they added. “It’s more than a twist - it’s a helter-skelter with razor blades.”
So now the group have until September 30 to decide whether to go on - that’s the day the transfer is due to take place from council ownership to the community group set up to run the pool.
And they are calling on people across South Bristol who use the pool to keep up their support and help them fundraise to save it.
They are asking people to keep up their membership with Lex Leisure, and if it’s been cancelled or they are not a member, to join up at £24.99 a month, as well as make regular or a one-off donation as soon as possible.
People can donate by visiting the group’s Local Giving page here. More information about the project at the Friends of Jubilee Pool is here.
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