Sparkhill Residents Reject PFI Swimming Pool Proposals

Sparkhill residents last night unanimously rejected proposals for a PFI-funded swimming pool on the Moseley School site in Springfield Road. Steve Beauchampé reports on a highly charged meeting (This article also appears on The Stirrer website).

A public meeting of Sparkhill residents last night unanimously rejected proposals for a PFI-funded swimming pool on the Moseley School site in Springfield Road to replace the former pool on Stratford Road, which closed in July 2008 after 77 years of service owing to major structural defects.

The meeting, organised by the Save Sparkhill Baths campaign group, was attended by around 80 residents, Councillors and Council officials following news that private sector firm Pulse Fitness (who already run many gymnasiums on city council leisure sites) had offered to build and operate a new pool for the district in return for an initial £3m of public investment.

But after 90 minutes of what at times was a messy and rowdy meeting, a straw poll of residents voted unanimously in favour of the promised replacement facilities being located on the site of the current pool, adjacent to Sparkhill Park, in what many regard as the civic heart of Sparkhill.

Council Cabinet member for Leisure, Sport and Culture Martin Mullaney came under fire for appearing to favour the Pulse proposals, finding himself isolated with not one member of the audience supporting the proposal, and even fellow Liberal Democrat Councillor Jerry Evans cautioning against the plans.

Evans, who together with Respect Party Leader Salma Yaqoob, are contesting the Hall Green Constituency at the forthcoming General Election, were keen to distance themselves from what was clearly an unpopular proposal. They were joined in their opposition by Labour’s Roger Godseiff, the sitting MP. Mullaney however, as an elected council official, is legally obliged to give detailed consideration to Pulse’s intervention though there is little doubt that their plans hold for him the significant attraction of allowing the city to deliver a rebuilt Sparkhill Pool and undertake essential refurbishment works to re-open the Gala Pool at the Grade II* Moseley Road Baths in Balsall Heath within the £15m allocated to the two Hall Green Constituency projects by the Council’s Cabinet last October.

However, concerns, including the Springfield Road location, the loss of community control over public facilities, the absence of a learner pool in the Pulse proposals and ideological arguments over PFI schemes led the meeting to express support for one of the more expensive options, either a six-lane pool, 60 station gym, sauna and dance studio (costed at £13.1m) or a four-lane pool, learner pool, 30 station gym, sauna and dance studio (£10.9m).

Mullaney meets Pulse Fitness for the first time today (Thursday) to look at their plans in detail, though it is already known that their proposal would involve a six-lane pool with moveable floor, an 80 station gym, sauna and dance studio. School usage would be prioritised during weekdays (as is currently the case at most Birmingham pools) however a separate entrance would allow public access to the site (which also includes a sports hall and floodlit pitches – though these are not part of the PFI proposals). The meeting heard that the city council would continue to set the tariffs for public use of the new centre’s facilities but would be expected to meet an anticipated shortfall in running costs (which includes a fee payable to Pulse for operating the centre) of £228,000 per annum. If given the green light, the pool would be operational by 2013.

Mullaney pledged full public consultation once talks with Pulse had been concluded and the final details of their proposals established, telling the meeting that public opinion would be “a very strong factor in our final decision.” The exact format and timescale of any public consultation exercise is yet to be determined but, Mullaney stated, would be conducted by Sparkhill Ward officials.

Steve Beauchampé

Rescheduled meeting with Cllr Mullaney

REMINDER:

The postponed meeting with Cllr Mullaney, Cabinet Member for Sports, Leisure and Culture will be going ahead this Thursday, 21st January at 7:30pm at Anderton Park School Children’s Centre.

For background on why we’re anxious to speak with him at this point in our campaign please see our previous blogpost: Constituency Financial Woes?

Remember to contact the group if there are any specific issues that you would like us to raise.  Thanks to John and Mark for your comments so far – we’ll be taking them forward to the meeting.

New meeting date

As a result of the inclement weather we have been unable to go ahead with tonight’s planned Committee meeting which Cllr Mullaney, Cabinet member for Sports, Leisure and Culture was going to attend.

We have now put the meeting back by two weeks to Thursday 21st January, 7:30-9:00pm at Anderton Park School Children’s Centre. Cllr Mullaney will be in attendance from 8pm onwards to answer questions relating to the future of the building, maintenance work and the new timetable.  We are particularly anxious to find out more about some of the proposal to re-open the Gala Pool for swimming announced at last month’s Hall Green Constituency Committee meeting.

If you have questions or points to raise but are not able to attend then please use the comments box below to post up your thoughts.

Hope to see you there!

Constituency financial woes?

Shortly before Christmas the Hall Green Constituency meeting took place, with its main aim being to find a way to cut the constituency’s budget by £1m in order to help balance the books.  As part of this several points were raised which will affect Moseley Road Baths.  We should know more about these when we meet with Cllr Martin Mullaney, the Cabinet member for Sport, Leisure and Culture this coming Thursday.

The first point relates to maintenance work which has taken place over the Christmas period.  It is hoped that the short-term closure of the holidays will stop water leakages from Pool 2, resulting in £30,000 savings per year in water and heating costs.  Additional changing facilities will also be installed, thanks to the fundraising efforts of Philip Morris who hit the news a few weeks back!

Secondly, opening hours for public swimming will be reduced and replaced with extra time for club and group swimming (overall opening times will remain the same). The changes will mainly affect the latter part of the day. Brett Willers, the Constituency Director, claimed that there is significant unmet demand for group swimming, but acknowledged that the reason for the change was because groups and clubs pay to swim whereas most individuals currently swim for free.  We have expressed concern at this decrease in public swimming and will be speaking to Cllr Mullaney about this on Thursday.  In the meantime, we urge everyone to ring ahead of their visit (0121 464 0150) to check for timetable changes.

Finally, we are still awaiting the official announcement on a consultant’s report into re-opening the Gala Pool.  However, we have learnt that it recommends that there should be an initial expenditure of £300,000 to make the building ‘watertight’ with an investment of £9m in 2011 or 2012 to reopen the pool, with the work only commencing once Sparkhill has been reopened.  This is much less than some of the claims made in the press and is comparable with the cost of building a new facility.  We’ll hopefully have more information in the next week or so.  Watch this space…

Meeting with Councillor Mullaney

Please note that this meeting has now been CANCELLED and has been re-arranged for 21st January.

Happy New Year to you all. We hope you have had a good break.

On Thursday 7th January at Anderton Park School Children’s Centre Cllr Mullaney will be attending a FoMRB campaign meeting to give us an update on the situation with the baths and answer any questions you have for him.

All Friends are welcome. The meeting starts at 7:30 and Councillor Mullaney will be attending from 8:00 to 9:00pm.

We hope to see you there.

Russ Spring
Chair

Still endangered

Moseley Road Baths has hit the news this week with the news that for the third consecutive year it has been placed on The Victorian Society‘s top ten most endangered buildings.  The Society’s Director, Dr Ian Dungavell who earlier this year swam in Moseley Road Baths and numerous other endangered pools to raise awareness of their condition said;
‘Moseley Road Baths is the best of them all and it’s the most fabulous pool in the country that you can still swim in… Future generations won’t forgive us for leaving our heritage to deteriorate beyond repair.’
To find out about the other buildings that made the list go to the Victorian Society’s site, and also have a look at the BBC Birmingham feature on the news.