Birtley ASC News
Asset Transfer Update
In early November last year, Gateshead Council (GC) announced their intention to close two of their swimming pools and indicated that the most likely to close would be the leisure centres at Dunston and Gateshead. A six-week consultation period then took place in November and December, during which the club had a significant input as a major customer for Dunston Leisure Centre (DLC).
After assessing the feedback from the consultation, GC announced on January 24th that they were no longer proposing to close Dunston pool, but instead proposed that Birtley Swimming Centre (BSC) would close. In response to further feedback received after this announcement in January, GC have extended the consultation period until May 8th, to enable people who use BSC to give their feedback.
GC will then assess the feedback from this second period of consultation and will announce their final decision on which two pools will be closing on June 20th. Their current plan is that two pools will close at the end of July, which will be Gateshead Leisure Centre and BSC unless feedback from the second round of consultation results in a further change.
Impact on Birtley Swimming club
If GC go ahead with their proposals and close BSC, as you know this will have a significant impact on Birtley Swimming Club. This would mean we would potentially need to look at other pools in the area to hold our weekly sessions.
The staff and committee at Birtley Swimming club have discussed and investigated the possibility of other pools in the area, however we need to consider travel time and availability, along with increased costs from Gateshead Council.
Proposal - Community Asset transfer option for Birtley Swimming Centre (BSC)
The club has recently had discussions with Gateshead and Whickham ASC with the proposal of working together as they have held meetings with GC about the possibility of a Community Asset Transfer for BSC. If the current proposal to close BSC at the end of July remains unchanged, and a CAT was subsequently achieved for BSC, then there would be no requirement to transfer any staff from the existing council run leisure centres to the BSC CAT group. This means there is potential for significant savings to be made in the employment costs at BSC by doing things differently, which could mean a CAT for that pool can be financially viable.
There are advantages for doing a Community Asset Transfer, which include:
- Birtley swimming club already delivers learn to swim, lifeguarding and club swimming at BSC but not competitive swimming so there is a good synergy with GAW who have a focus on competitive swimming, and the activities would be complementary
- There is more opportunity to increase income from Learn To Swim at BSC as it has two large learner pools
- BSC already has several schools who have swimming lessons there and would likely want this to continue after a CAT. Other local schools may also be interested in this.
- There is demand from the public for lane swimming in the late evening, which is currently not being met as GC are operating BSC on reduced hours
- Other swimming clubs are also interested in taking water time at BSC
- Birtley pool has a very passionate staff group who love the centre, so we believe there would be interest from some of them in applying for new roles at Birtley after a CAT has taken place
As a result, representatives from both Gateshead and Whickham Swimming Club and Birtley Swimming Club have decided to explore the potential for an asset transfer for BSC. The CAT group will also need to engage other users of BSC, including the local schools and members of the public, to get their input.
Timescales for the Community Asset Transfer
Phase 1: High level Business Case
Over the next two months we will be working with representatives from Birtley swimming club and the local community in Birtley to identify and quantify the activities that would be run at Birtley following a CAT, as well as developing the staffing requirements and costs to run these activities.
If this results in a viable high level business case for the Birtley CAT, with income covering costs, it will need to be presented to by the CAT group to GC by the middle of May for approval.
Phase 2: Detailed long term Business Plan
If the high-level business case is approved, and GC confirm in June that BSC is to close at the end of July, the CAT group will then need to undertake more work to produce a detailed long term business plan for BSC. This would include identifying and securing funding for any required capital works, agreeing water time and pricing with the future customers of BSC such as Birtley Swimming Club, GAW, local schools, and all new customers, and developing a pool timetable, staffing rota and roles required to run the activities in the business plan.
If the detailed business plan is still financially viable after this phase, it would need to be presented by the CAT group to GC for approval at the end of this phase which is likely to be in the last quarter of this year.
GC will put protective measures in place for BSC following its closure at the end of July, similar to what was in place during the COVID lockdowns, so that the pool can be reopened relatively quickly of the CAT goes ahead.
Phase 3: Implementation phase
If the detailed Business plan is approved by GC, the final phase will require the planning and delivery of all the tasks required to reopen the pool. This would include setting up the new community organisation which will run BSC after the CAT, recruitment of staff, agreement of contracts with customers, undertaking any capital work required before the pool reopens, marketing the new facility and setting up the necessary systems and processes to manage BSC after the CAT.
A significant period of time will be required to deliver phases two and three. CATs of this size typically take at least a year to deliver, so if the business plan is viable for BSC, it is likely that BSC would not reopen until towards the end of the first quarter of 2024.
Edith Scott Club Chair
Dean Cox Club Secretary
Claire Kelly Club Treasurer
