PUBLIC concern over the loss of morning opening at Bowhill Pool has seen two MSPs and an MP try to persuade the authorities to avoid what they feel are damaging changes by Fife Sports and Leisure Trust.
Pool user Leslie Szary observed: “I went to the pool today for the first time after the holidays, and about 15 people turned up for the pool and gym. Mostly all of them were people that went in the morning. Fife Leisure Trust states that more people used the buildings in the afternoon but this is obviously false, and just a poly to shut extra an extra four hours a day.
“The people of Cardenden have been to Alex Rowley, Annabelle Ewing and Peter Grant..why can’t these elected politicians join forces get together and get this situation resolved.”
Alex Rowley said: “I wrote to every councillor in Fife asking them to look at the detail of the cuts to swimming.
“The provision of swimming is the direct responsibility of Fife Council and it is the council that has cut the management fee of the Trust who run the services for them. Hence I have asked every Fife Councillor to look at what is happening.
“I made the point to councillors that public swimming and access to leisure are functions of local government and regardless of the fact that these services are in a Trust these are still council services which depend on councillors standing up for them at this time of failed austerity.
“I have also been communicating with the Director of Finance at the council examining the budgets. So I am trying to work with all parties but it is the councillors who can make the decision to stop cutting the swimming hours.”
In a letter to Mr Rowley the Trust Chief Operating Officer, Wendy Watson said: “During the budget setting process the Trust put forward proposals for changes to reduce the services it provides to Fife Council, taking into account the Management Fee paid by the local authority, the income that can be generated from services, programmes and activities and the costs to deliver what was then the current service provision.
“Confirmation to make the changes was confirmed to the Trust and the Change Control process was formally signed off by Fife Council and then the Trust followed the necessary protocol to consult with staff affected by the service re-design.
“When this was concluded, the Trust was in a position to communicate the new operating hours to customers. Despite prudent financial management by the Trust, which has seen it deliver a wide range of programmes, including self-funded, award-winning health-related classes to benefit local communities in partnership with NHS Fife and Fife Health and Social Care Partnership, which help reduce pressures on vital public sector services; and, reinvestment of surpluses to upgrade equipment and facilities – the significant reduction of management fee since 2010 has a direct impact on facilities. The Trust has for some time been warning Fife Council of the consequences of continued reductions on its management fee, and, that in time, it would have an impact on the delivery of service and customers – that point has now been reached with changes to operating hours to trust facilities across Fife.
“Changes to the opening hours of at Bowhill Swimming Pool are targeted at times which in the main are outwith the core peak operating periods and safeguard times for community activities for older adults and children, for example health classes and children swimming lessons.
“The Trust has worked hard to make changes which will have the least amount of impact on customer usage and service delivery, while achieving much-needed budget savings”. Cowdenbeath MSP Annabelle Ewing stated: “I share the concerns that have been expressed about the changes to opening hours at Bowhill Pool and wrote, last month, to the Head of the Fife Sports and Leisure Trust, Wendy Watson, and am now in process of arranging a meeting with her. I also wrote to the Chief Executive of Fife Council, who replied to say that the matter had been passed to the Head of Communities and Neighbourhoods.
“Additionally, I have raised the matter with SportsScotland and copied all correspondence to Scottish Swimming and to the Minister for Sport. I can assure everyone disappointed by these changes that I am continuing to make their case.”
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