By Carmelo Garcia – Local Democracy Reporter
Stroud’s Outdoor Pool could follow the same path of success as the Subscription Rooms as residents turned out in force and called for the beleaguered lido to be transferred to the Town Council.
More than 200 people gathered at St Laurence’s Church last night (April 20) to quiz council leaders, campaigners and swimming pool experts about the future of Stratford Park lido.
The pool is deemed to be too dangerous to reopen currently and the initial intention from Stroud District Council was for the site not to open this year while long-term plans to secure its future were drawn up.
However, after mounting public pressure and efforts from campaign group Save Our Lido Stroud, councillors agreed last week to try and do the essential repairs needed to reopen this summer.
They agreed to spend up to £200,000 in revenue funding to do essential maintenance work and are willing to borrow up to £900,000 in capital funding for longer-term improvements for the lido which first opened to the public in 1937.
However, there is uncertainty over the long-term future of the 50-yard pool and who will ultimately be its future custodians with the District Council set to be abolished in the coming years with local government reorganisation fast approaching.
Tim Temple, South West Development Manager for Locality who are national experts in community ownership, was among the panel members.
He said there are four options in running the outdoor pool which include the status quo whereby the District Council continues to operate it, that it is leased to an operator as was done previously, that it be transferred to the community or that a hybrid partnership is set up.
The meeting also heard from Alan George, the founding director of Wotton Swimming Pool Ltd.
The Wotton-under-Edge pool was sold by Gloucestershire County Council to the Town Council in the 1990s and until 2010 was run by Stroud District Council with help from the volunteers.
However, the District Council had to withdraw their financial and operational support.
The town voted to increase council tax and take on the running of the site in 2010 and they have since made a real success of it.
A similar operating model could be a way forward for Stratford Park lido. And Martin Brown, chairman of the District Council’s community services and licensing committee, said the working group “will look at all these possibilities and take advice from everywhere it can”.
“That’s how we are starting to look at the future of the lido, questions of who will own it and manage it,” he said.
The panel was asked if the Town Council would take on the lido. And Town Council deputy chief executive Heath Gunter said there is definitely a role for them to play in its future but he could not commit to anything on the night.
However, he did say are open to it and there is a history of the Town Council taking on assets and making a success of them such as the Subscription Rooms.
“You will all remember what the Sub Rooms were like many years ago, it is thriving now,” he said.
He went on to say that the “community needs to tell us whether they want us to take that asset on”.
Save Our Lido Stroud co-ordinator Caroline Molloy said they welcomed the District Council’s change in stance and she would personally like to see the Town Council playing more of a role with the pool.
She said they are encouraged by that and the engagement with the District Council has been positive but there is a lot of complexity surrounding the pool and a lot of unknowns.
“The initial announcement was to hand over to the community an asset that was closing, that was being mothballed,” she said.
“We said we don’t want that. Let’s talk about handing this over once it is functioning as a going concern, we’ve done the basic repairs this summer.
“Thank you everyone for being here to push for that.”
She said Save our Stroud Lido would help in whatever way they can and called for a public commitment from the council to “get boots on the ground” to work on the repairs by May.
Keith Gerrard, the communities director at Ebley Mill, said the works will depend on how quickly they get a costed plan.
“The timetable we were given was three to four weeks,” he said.
“I’m very confident the company and engineer that was on site will try his very best to bring something to us within that timetable.”
He said if they can do that within three to four weeks there is commitment to get workers on site as quickly as possible but it depends on the scale of the work.
After the questions and answers session ended, residents were allowed to put forward suggestions for the Town Council to consider.
Megan Sheer, was among the six residents who put forward a successful motion and proposed that the Town Council prioritise talks with the District Council to transfer the freehold of the pool before local government reorganisation.
“In recent years, the outdoor pool hasn’t received the attention it deserves,” she said.
“With looming local government reorganisation its future is in peril.
“The town council has a track record of looking after local assets.”
District Council leader Chloe Turner, who told the meeting she loves the outdoor pool and whose grandfather used to run it in the 1960s when he was master of the parks, said they would be open to such talks.
“If we are putting the asset in the hands in the right body, and if everybody agrees that body is Stroud Town Council, then it would be possible to do,” she said.
“Whether it is possible to do it operationally before [local government reorganisation] is another matter but we could certainly have a go”.
A total of 27 Stroud electors voted in favour, seven against and there were six abstentions for that particular motion.
Another 15 residents, who were precluded from voting as they live in other nearby parishes, also raised their arms in support of the proposal.
Other motions agreed on the night include calling for a commitment to work with the community and other parties to secure the safe and accessible opening of the pool and develop it over time as a higher quality lido.
Stroud residents also want the District Council to make ample resources available to transfer the pool to the community or hybrid-model and ensure appropriate remedial works have been completed.
And they want to see a commitment towards an inclusive and empowered participatory process around the management of the district’s assets beginning with the lido with a view to making them appropriate, accessible, sustainable and resilient.
They also want the details of the condition and financial position of all its assets in the town made public to allow community groups to prepare for any requirements to protect them, given the council’s mid-term financial position.
And there was a suggestion that oversight and management of the working group should be transferred to Stroud Town Council
The Town Council will discuss these non-binding resolutions at their next meeting on April 27.