Jedburgh Memorial Pool to close after bail-out rejected

A debt-ridden Borders swimming pool is to be mothballed after councillors rejected a request for a further bail-out of up to £100,000.

Scottish Borders Council is facing a £4m financial short-fall and is taking difficult decisions to balance the budget.

Against that backdrop members of SBC on Thursday, November 28, endorsed a recommendation not to support a funding request from Jedburgh Leisure Facilities Trust to keep afloat the town’s Laidlaw Memorial Pool.

All three Jedburgh councillors – John Bathgate, Scott Hamilton and Sandy Scott – argued in favour of the bail-out, and received support from Hawick and Denholm’s Councillor Stuart Marshall.

But the majority of members across the chamber decided the business was not currently sustainable and chose not to “throw good money after bad” when voting 26 to four to refuse the latest of several funding requests.

Council leader Euan Jardine said he recognised that the decision was a difficult one but described it as “pragmatic”.

He said the aim was for a”reset” and that other avenues would be explored with hopes remaining that the pool could reopen in the future.

The pool, where Olympian Lucy Hope learned to swim, is now set to be handed back to the council and will be mothballed until such time as a services and facilities options appraisal is completed.

Councillor Leagh Douglas, SBC’s portfolio holder for Finance, IT and Corporate Performance, said: “We must ensure that every pound of public money is allocated where it can deliver the greatest benefit to the widest number of people with the focus on long-term sustainability.

“I want to reassure the community that this is not the end of the discussion about the future of this facility.

“This is a profoundly challenging situation but we need to act responsibly in the face of serious financial constraints and while I support the recommendation not to support additional funding at this time I remain fully committed to providing sustainable solutions for leisure facilities in Jedburgh and indeed across the whole of the Scottish Borders.”

Jedburgh & District Councillor Scott Hamilton had forwarded an unsuccessful amendment to the recommendation calling on members to agree to the funding from council reserves.

Mr Hamilton said there was a “community need” for the facility, especially with 70 new homes in the town currently in the pipeline.

He said: “My mind is set that mothballing this swimming pool would be the wrong decision.

“In order for you to carry out a review and make a decision on it it is better to keep the lights on, to keep the pool full of water and keep activity there.”

A spokesperson for the Board of Trustees of the Laidlaw Memorial Pool expressed “deep disappointment” at the council decision, saying: “We had hoped for a different outcome and are committed to exploring every possible avenue.

“The Board will meet tomorrow to discuss the next steps. Staff have been informed of this decision, and we will share further updates with the public following the meeting.

“We understand the strong feelings surrounding this matter and appreciate the support shown by Councillors Scott Hamilton and Sandy Scott and the ongoing support of SOSE.”

The pool will be open today, Friday, November 29, and operational as usual.

The opening hours at the town’s Laidlaw Memorial Pool had already been reduced and further reductions in its hours and staff redundancies would have been required to keep the facility open even if funding had been agreed, as the current operating model is “not financially sustainable”.

There was also a risk that even more funding would have been required before the end of the financial year and of budget shortfalls in future financial years.

The financial challenges experienced at the pool have been due to reduced income, increased energy and staff costs since the Covid-19 pandemic.

Governance issues have also impacted on the trust and operation of the facility.

The council provided Jedburgh Leisure Facilities Trust with £127,000 in January 2023 to enable energy efficiency measures to be implemented to help manage energy costs and the trust receives annual funding of £115,000 from the council to provide services from the pool, which is owned by the council.

This funding is normally split as quarterly payments, however to provide immediate cash-flow support a number of the payments this year were advanced by the council, and in fact the final payment was made in August this year.

An additional £10,000 for the trust, in recognition of the challenges being faced by the sector, was agreed as part of the 2024/25 budget and has also been paid.

At the council meeting in August it was agreed £40,000 of emergency funding from reserves would also be provided to the trust as an interim measure to enable the trust to develop a business plan and engage further with the council and with South of Scotland Enterprise in an attempt to make changes to move the trust and operating model on to a sustainable footing.

Part of the council’s ongoing joint work with Live Borders involves considering the delivery of sustainable services and facilities, supported by the analysis of property condition surveys and other key facility and service data.

As agreed at council in August, the Jedburgh facility is also being considered as part of this work-stream, which is due to be completed in March 2025.

As this work progresses there will be engagement with communities and other stakeholders, building upon the significant volume of feedback gathered from public and stakeholders as part of the Joint Review of sport, leisure and cultural services and facilities last year.