By Rebecca Maer
The council leader was in the hot seat last night as he faced a heartfelt plea from a mother spearheading a campaign to keep the Sovereign Centre swimming pools open all year.
Cllr Stephen Holt, leader of the Liberal Democrat-controlled borough council, was called to answer questions at the scrutiny committee under the glare of the chandeliers in the court room at Eastbourne Town Hall.
He faced multiple questions such as why there was initially no procurement process to operate the leisure centre and why it took a campaign by residents for the council to apparently change its mind.
“When will you put Eastbourne’s 20,000 children first? When will you demonstrate a commitment to young people?”
Sarah turner
In less than three months, Eastbourne Borough Council has gone from a position of closing two pools at the Sovereign Centre to negotiating with a different operator, who will keep them open for part of the year.
Sarah Turner, who heads the Save the Sovereign Centre campaign, told the meeting that a plan to re-open the fun pool from spring to October was “not enough”.
“When will you put Eastbourne’s 20,000 children first? When will you demonstrate a commitment to young people?” she asked Cllr Holt.
“It took immense pressure before you looked at alternatives [to closing the pools].”
Ms Turner spoke of the stories that people had shared with her about their children, some of whom faced health challenges, and how they were helped enormously by being able to swim throughout the year to help their mobility and build strength.
She started the campaign in early December after the previous operator Wave Active said it would be closing the fun pool and the small, warm training pool. That would have left the deeper, colder gala pool to be used for children’s swimming lessons and physiotherapy.
The Facebook page Save the Sovereign Centre has nearly 3,000 followers and a petition against the closures has attracted 7,600 signatures.
Ten days ago, the council announced it was in negotiations with social enterprise GLL, which said it would keep the fun pool open from spring to October.
“Your action has led first to disappointment, then frustration, and ultimately outrage, as demonstrated by the residents of Eastbourne”
cllr kshama shore
Conservative councillor Kshama Shore, who chairs the scrutiny committee, was uncompromising in her comments to Cllr Holt last night.
She said: “Your action has led first to disappointment, then frustration, and ultimately outrage, as demonstrated by the residents of Eastbourne.
“The lack of judgment shown by this council over the Sovereign Centre is scandalous. Four times you voted to close these pools and then, as if that was not damaging enough, you sent out ‘news briefings’ with headlines saying ‘we saved the pools’ – that was misleading at the very least.”
“I am determined to do whatever I can to find the best solution for the centre: transparency, openness and honesty is absolutely critical”
cllr stephen holt
The council’s press release on 10 December was headed ‘Future of swimming confirmed at Sovereign Centre’, referring to swimming lessons being moved to the large gala pool. It was the day after dozens of people protested on the steps of the town hall against pool closures.
Cllr Holt said he had repeatedly stated that it had not been an easy decision to take. “I am determined to do whatever I can to find the best solution for the centre: transparency, openness and honesty is absolutely critical,” he told the committee.
Cllr Shore pointed out that although Cllr Holt has often said that 276 local authority swimming pools had closed in the last ten years, he did not mention that 242 had been built on comparable sites. This information is here in Hansard in response to a question in Parliament last February.
Cllr Holt said that it still showed that more than 30 pools had closed across the country and that decisions about the Sovereign Centre were not easy to make.
He said the council had committed to invest £600,000 over the next three years in the Sovereign Centre and that he wanted to work with the community and funding partners to secure its future.
He revealed that the fun pool would be reopened by GLL on 5 April, in time for the Easter holidays. An FAQs page about the new operator was now on the council website. He said there would also be a report to next month’s Cabinet meeting (26 March) about the pools.
The council has said it needs to save another £2.7 million this year and around £3 million in each of the next two years to balance the budget. It must do this to avoid effective bankruptcy, being taken over by government commissioners who would only operate statutory services, which do not include swimming pools.
The Cabinet approved a round of controversial spending cuts last September.
The council is spending nearly £5 million a year on temporary accommodation, one of the main reasons it says it faces financial problems. Cabinet members have spoken frequently of the pressures on the council’s budget of homelessness.
Conservative finance spokesman Cllr David Small pressed Cllr Holt on why the council appeared to have changed from insisting pool closures were necessary under the previous operator to finally talking to other organisations.
“How did those processes work out in that way? In six weeks, you have reversed everything. What changed? Was it pressure from the public?” he asked.
Cllr Holt said: “I have always said we would do everything we could. But we still need to make savings.” He did not answer why the council had changed its approach or why there had apparently not been a procurement process in the first place.
At a previous meeting of the scrutiny committee in December, his Lib Dem Cabinet colleague Cllr Margaret Bannister was asked why other quotes outside Wave had not been sought.
She said: “This ‘We have not gone out to market’ keeps coming up time and again.” She said when the council was looking for a new operator in 2020, other organisations were not interested.
“The only people who were interested were Wave Leisure because it’s a 40-odd-year-old building and needs a lot of money spending on it.”
Her comments at the time were greeted by jeers from the public gallery, with people saying that was during Covid lockdowns and that the situation was different now.
The scrutiny committee is not a decision-making body; it reports back to the Cabinet or full council. Last night’s discussion about the Sovereign Centre was a verbal update.
Sovereign Centre decision timeline
19 July 2023
- Cabinet meeting: it’s agreed the council will again sign up with leisure operator Wave to run the Sovereign Centre “once a full business case is understood and considered to be satisfactory”.
18 September 2024
- Cabinet meeting: cuts of £2.7 million agreed, including immediate closure of the Beachy Head Story heritage centre and reduced funding for the Towner Gallery. The Sovereign Centre is not discussed.
13 November 2024
- Cabinet meeting: confirms two pools will close along with many public toilets to save money
20 November 2024
- Full council meeting: no “irreversible changes” will be made to the pools, council leader Stephen Holt says, in response to a motion by Conservative councillor Kshama Shore.
- The motion calls on Cabinet members to “explore all options to keep all the facilities at the Sovereign Leisure Centre open”.
3 December 2024
- Save the Sovereign Centre Facebook page is launched by Sarah Turner. It currently has nearly 3,000 followers
9 December 2024
- Scrutiny committee: dozens of families protest at the town hall. After a lengthy discussion, councillors recognise the strength of feeling about the issue, that the council is “fully committed to keeping the pools open longer term” and recommends an advisory group should explore more opportunities for swimming and leisure in Eastbourne.
- When questioned by Conservative councillor David Small about “why on earth have we not gone outside of Wave for quotes”, Cabinet member Cllr Margaret Bannister replies (at 1h 18m on the webcast) that no one had been interested in operating it in 2020.
11 December 2024
- Cabinet meeting: accepts scrutiny committee recommendations
13 December 2024
- Freedom Leisure confirms to Eastbourne Reporter it has approached the council about running the Sovereign Centre
17 December 2024
- In reponse to our questions, the council stated it was “quite normal” to receive approaches from businesses and other organisations. It said it would assess these approaches based on whether these parties could operate the pools without being subsidised by the council.
30 January 2025
- The council announces it is in negotiations with social enterprise GLL, which operates 140 pools across the UK
1 February 2024
- Large protest goes ahead outside the Sovereign Centre after it emerges fun pool may only be open “seasonally” from spring to October.
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