FAQs

What, basically, happened to the pool in 2010?

Stroud District Council (SDC) who used to run the pool, relinquished their responsibility for running it and handed it back to the owners, Wotton town Council (WTC). Over the past ten/fifteen years the pool had been operated by SDC as a leisure facility in the Stroud District area. In order to cut costs SDC reviewed the cost and usage of its leisure facilities and Wotton Pool was one of those it decided to hand back to the owners. The return of the pool to WTC by SDC clearly threatened its future viability, and the Town Council asked Wotton Swimming Pool Club (WSPC) to establish whether it was possible to continue operating the pool as a Community Enterprise. WSPC therefore worked with SDC and WTC to carry out a feasibility study.

So, who were the Swimming Pool Club?

Ever since the pool was self-built as an educational facility by the Secondary School in 1958-61 there has been a public interest in the facility. Initially the school managed/operated the pool and the Swimming Club was the community club that promoted swimming and water activities in the pool outside school hours. However, as time went by the club developed more into a group of people interested in the continuance of the pool as a facility for the Wotton townsfolk. A key element of the objective was to have a wholesome, energetic and useful facility in town for youngsters and families to enjoy. As reported elsewhere, the Club has now been dissolved and its members have transferred to become members of Wotton under Edge Swimming Pool Limited.

...and how did they do that?

The club worked in close contact with the pool operator (recently Dursley Pool, but previously Glos CC and the school) to suggest and advise on operating arrangements and to provide volunteer Lifeguards (fully-trained) and Gatekeepers to supervise public sessions. About half the sessions run for the public at the pool were supervised by WSPC volunteers

Why was it necessary to have a referendum?

WSPC's feasibility study came up with a number of costs and risks associated with running the pool. One of the key issues was routine year-on-year finance. Just to run the pool (rates, utilities, chemicals, water, labour costs, insurance, specialist and routine maintenance) costs around £28,000 (net cost) per year*. While the voluntary group could work hard to raise sums of money relatively easily for single capital items for repairs/improvements, it was thought not reasonable to expect fundraising to deliver this amount as a year-on-year activity. The only obvious source of regular money to cover running costs was the local precept (the element of council tax that the Town Council can spend). £28k is about a 10% increase on the existing precept and the Council do not have the authority to raise it by this amount without proper public consultation. Hence a referendum was held. The vote was an astonishing 1082 in favour, 102 against.*Depending on revenue

So the referendum had an 11:1 vote in favour, was the Council bound to accept the result?

No, but with such a solid mandate given by the electorate it supported it. Had the vote gone in the opposite direction then there would have been a clear case for closing the pool and making the site safe by decommissioning it. So the use of the referendum (ask the audience!) had the benefit of giving the Town Council the mandate to carry out whichever course of action was chosen by the electorate. In this sense a strong majority in either direction was far better for everyone than a finely balanced result.

£28000 is a lot of money, what if I don’t use the pool?

It is, and it is understandable that people who don’t use the pool will be reluctant to pay. However, the pool is an important facility for the town because swimming is an important life-skill, children can get to the pool without transport or parental involvement and they can expend their energy in a socially responsible way. Towns without such facilities often have an adolescent behaviour problem in their streets. Also, a number of added economies come into play: letting WSPC run the pool will allow much greater involvement of the volunteers at no extra cost, and, once Wotton had voted yes, approaches were made to adjoining parishes to look for contributions to reduce the burden on Wotton council tax payers (Kingswood, Wickwar, Hillesley and Tresham kindly agreed). And in the end, it only adds 25p to the weekly bill of the average household, and 11 out of 12 Wotton voters who chose to express their opinion thought this was a good price to pay.

…and what happened next?

On hearing the resounding result WSPC worked hard to get the early decisions made and jobs complete ready for running the pool in 2011. The key things that were done were sorting out the legal agreements with the Town Council (a Lease and a Service Level Agreement) managing some of the building/plant risks and hiring staff.

Did this assume that the WSPC feasibility study was correct, and what did it contain?

Yes, up to a point. The study was based on a long-term sustainable (indefinite) future, and suggested a review point at three years. It used advice and experience obtained from other Community Enterprise pools (Chipping Norton, Portishead, and Lydney) and came up with a governance model of a Company Limited by Guarantee (a non profit-making limited company) that would be a trust and a registered as a charity. The study looked at the finance required, the ‘offer’ to the public as a swimming venue, the appearance and utility of the buildings, the management of safety (HSE guidance documents give this advice), the pool and plant condition, staffing (pool managers and some lifeguards; all part-time), marketing and a future vision. All the estimates were judgements, but partly based on historical figures, and SDC took the opportunity to review it. The pool condition judgements were supported by a professional surveyors report jointly commissioned by WTC and SDC as a 'due diligence' exercise. So it was probably a reasonable judgement of what is needed to run the pool.

What were the key costs and risks?

Costs

Risks

• Inability to get suitable people to sign up as directors/trust members (the responsibilities are large, and no-one will get paid, or possibly even thanked, for taking them on)
• Shortfall in revenue finance (28k is more than can be raised routinely year-on-year by fundraising)
• The water circulation pipe that connects the bottom of pool to the filter in the pump-house (the exposed area is very rusty and much of the pipe is inaccessible under the pool)
• Inability to maintain adequate volunteer workforce (due to work load)
• Inability to secure appropriate staff (not particularly well paid and awkward hours)

What are you doing about these costs and risks?

• The biggest risk was the inability to raise the required revenue; this was addressed by working with WTC to call the referendum and this resulted in WTC making the 28k available subject to meeting levels of service in the Service Level Agreement.  SDC provided a 'parting gift' (dowry?) of 8k to get the business off to a good start.  Also Kingswood Parish Council agreed to pay a year on year contribution of £1k as many of their parishioners use the pool.
• WSPC worked with SDC specialists and the SDC Building Manager to carry out a detailed camera survey of the pipe to establish the exact condition.  The survey showed that there is evidence of corrosion of the cast iron, as would be expected for a 50 year old pipe.  A segment of the above ground pipe was taken out to assess the residual strength and it is actually not in that bad condition.This risk has not disappeared, but our knowledge of the state is so much better that we feel we can go ahead with it for a number of years and the chance of it failing is small.
• WSPC secured legal advice on responsibilities and business models so that the responsibilities of the directors can be understood and thereby more readily adopted. Also insurance is in place to ensure that any legal claims on individuals can be effectively defended.  Three directors were initially appointed and Wotton under Edge Swimming Pool Ltd was formed.  It is now registered as a charity.  The lease from the town council and the service level agreement were agreed and signed.
• Protection of the volunteer force is probably best effected by organising a good working model for the pool, ensuring it is appropriately staffed and ensuring that everyone has a sense of ownership of the enterprise. In early 2011 there was a lot of hard work going on to get the pool into good condition for a very much improved customer experience (reconditioning of the pool liner, new lavatories and new pump room plant layout).  So there is certainly a sense of ownership, the working model is well advanced, managers are being recruited and so there is a level of confidence that is keeping the volunteers on board.

Sounds a very interesting project that makes a real difference to the town; is there any way I can help?

Yes, you can see there are plenty of things to be getting on with, so if you have some specialist skills (electrician, plumber, civil contractor, M&E specialist, lawyer, employment specialist, property specialist, pool manager… almost anything really) and are available to put some hours in with a great bunch of people, then please get in touch. We are keen to get assistance, but we are not always all that good at managing several streams of activity together. So things that are clearly crying out to be done sometimes get left undone because we are managing more significant issues. It can be frustrating sometimes!