Councillors in West Lothian have agreed that Armadale pool is to be drained as a safety measure.
The drainage, which could take up to three months to secure, will see the running costs for the building brought down from £10,000 a month to £7,500.
And the council has pledged to work with a fledgling community campaign which wants to see the pool reopened, three years after it was shuttered by West Lothian Leisure to save money.
A key change from a meeting in March which had tabled the consultation on the building’s future suggested that drainage would cost around £500 and could be done without causing damage to infrastructure; an eventual refill of the pool would cost slightly less, a senior council officer confirmed.
Reopening the pool was the key demand of the campaign Jillian Dunnigan, the chair of The Jim Sibbald Community Pool Group told a meeting of the council’s Executive that more than 5,000 people had now signed a petition to save the pool from permanent closure.
The petition: “requests that West Lothian Council fully considers the strength of community support, the importance of the asset to the local area, and all viable options for retention, reopening, partnership or sustainable future community use before any irreversible decision is taken.”
Ms Dunnigan argued that the pool provided access to exercise and active life skills that were needed in a town which face significant social social disadvantage. Answering a question from Conservative group leader Councillor Damian Doran-Timson she said that the facility would be much more difficult to rebuild than to be be protected in the first place.
The council Executive agreed in March to statutory eight-week consultation on the future of the building given that it is a Common Good property. A lengthy negotiation with Armadale Thistle FC which had wanted to take on the ownership had foundered.
New impetus to save the pool was launched by the SNP group. It had supported shuttering in 2023 offering no alternative to West Lothian Leisure’s plans to shut the pool along with pools in Livingston and Broxburn.
While the party initially called for delays and a full cost-benefit analysis of the closures, they voted in favour of the final proposals. This was done to prevent the insolvency of the entire West Lothian Leisure (Xcite) trust, which would have forced the closure of all leisure facilities in the area.
Ms Dunnigan said that few in Armadale had been consulted in the run up to the closure and this was why support for a now non-political campaign to save the pool had garnered such support.
Scott Hughes the council’s Strategic Property Asset Manager said in his latest report: “There has been significant public interest in this consultation and, having considered all the representations received through the various means set out above, officers consider that the vast majority of respondents wish to see the swimming pool facilities reopened, with the main drivers being improved physical and mental health and well-being, community cohesion and a generally held perception that Armadale has suffered from a lack of investment and an erosion of services and facilities in recent years. “
He added council staff were keen to work with the steering group in a bid to see the pool remain open under community ownership. The report added: “Officers from the Community Wealth Building team have sought to bring together and co-ordinate those interests and a community-led steering group has now been formed. It has begun work to establish governance arrangements and potential legal structures and is actively working to explore a viable community-led operating model for the swimming pool.
“Officers from Property Services and the Community Wealth Building team have supported the steering group with any queries to date and have committed to providing sight of any building-related information held by the council should proposals progress.
Mr Hughes’ report added: “Officers commissioned external structural engineers to undertake an inspection of the pool. Investigation and research has confirmed that the original pool basin was emptied and retained when the swimming pool building was demolished and rebuilt in the 1990’s and as such, the consultant structural engineers have confirmed that draining the pool now in a regulated and managed manner will not result in any material or structural damage to the pool.”
Independent Councillor Andrew McGuire congratulated the campaigners on their efforts. Addressing Ms Dunnigan he said: “You and the campaign team have done sterling work and consciously tried to make it apolitical and that’s to your credit. Turning the matters at hand it’s unfortunate that at the financial situation that the council is in that it had to make the difficult decision to close the Jim Sibbald swimming pool.
“I’m the fifth generation of my family to have lived in Armadale and I have never known anything like this in the town. This is a real genuine live issue. It’s not just about the swimming pool but it’s about decimation of public services as the result of public sector squeezes. We are here to listen to the views of the people who have brought us here. My hope is that we can work together to find a solution.”
Labour councillor Susan Manion said: “This is about the community itself. Huge thanks to the campaign group and to Jillian for the huge amounts of work you have done already.
“You have asked for time and we need to give time they make sure there are appropriate solutions found for the community.”
“I know that this town feels like it has been left behind and that this is the last straw.”
Councillor Manion added that she supported the community council’s assertion that should the pool could not be provisioned in its original form “ that an alternative community led use of the building.”
“That’s the important part.”
After the meeting the local SNP councillor Lynda Kenna told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “This is a hugely positive step for Armadale. Local people have made their views clear throughout this consultation, and I am delighted that the council is now backing a community-led approach. I want to thank everyone who took part and helped keep the future of the pool firmly on the agenda.”
By Stuart Sommerville Local Democracy Reporter
