Marple Swimming Pool currently closed

[Steve Gribbon]

Good morning.

Please see below for a copy of the message from a Stockport Council officer regarding Marple Pool. We (Councillors) are due to have a site inspection soon and will update accordingly. Kind regards, Steve


I appreciate the inconvenience that the continued closure of Marple Pool is causing.
The pool was closed in March due to major problems discovered with the pool filtration systems and pool fabric, whilst we were planning a small scale programme of repair and refurbishment works. We immediately commissioned a full condition survey of all aspects of the building so we had a clear picture of all works required over the next few years. At the time of commissioning the surveys, we were advised that to do even the minimum works
 required, closure until at least the end of January 2019 would be necessary. We have now received initial reports back and it is clear that the issues with the building are more complex than originally anticipated. We are reviewing the situation at present and will be in a position to provide a fuller update at the beginning of July. In the meantime, if there is anything we can do make access to swimming at other facilities easier, please let me know and I will discuss these with Life Leisure.

[Victor M]

I have received an email yesterday from Life Leisure stating that "Should investment to carry out the necessary works be approved, it is estimated that the pool will need to be closed until at least the end of January 2019".

They don't say who has to approve it, but I think this probably means additional budget from SMBC who I believe have already raided the contingency fund a number of times. This does not look good as the 2018-19 budget has been approved by both the Labour and Conservative groups.

[Razzle24]

@Razzle24 So where would you suggest a new facility should be constructed that isn't green space

What about Chadwick Street? Or Cross Lane?

[amazon]

@Razzle24 So where would you suggest a new facility should be constructed that isn't green space?

Apple tree  swamp .

[Jay]

Why not use the empty space off Cross Lane between Eastwood and Throstle Grove. Plenty of room there!

[Steve Gribbon]

Hello fellow site members

This is an update on asking for progression I have just posted on a different site:

Good afternoon, I have had a look for any updates on the Life Leisure Marple site, it is the same information that was being given at Romiley yesterday. I have sent an email to them asking for a full breakdown of work and anticipated costs/completion dates of each work item and I have also asked them to meet me at the site so I can see for myself the work that is needed. If I have not got a reply by Monday I shall repeat this but be on the phone to them also. Like I said previously this is an important part of our community, I will keep everyone informed as much as possible.

Kind regards

Steve Gribbon

[andrewbowden]

If it's seriously going to take until January 2019 just to fix the current pool, it'll be the missed opportunity of almost 90 years if nothing else is done to improve the place. The council probably think it's poorly attended or doesn't make enough money, but that's precisely because the vast majority of Marple residents avoid it. If it was a half-decent leisure facility the patronage would easily double, triple, quadruple...

As a regular user of the pool, I can tell anyone who wants to know that it was not generally poorly attended!  The early morning swim in particular was well used.  Saturdays and Sundays were often heaving, especially when the lessons were on.  The lunchtime session - that I used a lot - was rather packed in. 

Like any pool it had quiet periods.  Generally the quietest I ever saw it was between 9pm and 9:30pm on a Wednesday evening.  By 9:15 I'd often be the last one in.  But I can point to other pools at that time where things are similarly quiet. 

A bigger pool would be great.  But it would need to be a lot bigger to cope with four times the current usage!

[rsh]

Agreed that the Rec wouldn't be a good location. Not just because it's green space but because the topography of the land would mean a big leisure centre would stick out like a sore thumb in the middle of there. And being a "new" centre, somewhat on a periphery, it would command a load of new surfaced car parking to get through planning which would spoil the area even further.

The best place would have absolutely been the former Ridge College, already built-up, close enough to the centre of town that many people could walk. The old Peacefield Primary School could have been a reasonable spot too. Rugby club area not a bad idea but a bit out-the-way.

The only real suggestion I can offer for a new location (to probably go down like a lead balloon) would be the field in Memorial Park bordering Station Road, which I've never seen used for anything of any value. It'd be close enough to the centre of town to not require too much new parking, and would tie all the library and other facilities together in one place.

Nope, maybe just stick with the current location. It could easily fit a wider, 25 metre pool. We could even make do with the current pool, but why not build outwards at the front and onto the pointless car park at the side to provide a proper gym and new changing rooms over two storeys? Plenty of towns have swimming pools that are too small but most at least have a decent gym (New Mills and Bollington good examples). At the same time, rebuild the Derby Way car park with a deck to double its capacity.

If it's seriously going to take until January 2019 just to fix the current pool, it'll be the missed opportunity of almost 90 years if nothing else is done to improve the place. The council probably think it's poorly attended or doesn't make enough money, but that's precisely because the vast majority of Marple residents avoid it. If it was a half-decent leisure facility the patronage would easily double, triple, quadruple...

[Howard]

I don't live near the rec - but i do disagree with it being used to build a new swimming pool.  Why should we loose 'green space'?  With all the new houses that have been build over the years in Marple e.g. on Dale road, Cross Lane, Hibbert lane etc we are at the risk of becoming very build up.

@Razzle24 So where would you suggest a new facility should be constructed that isn't green space?

[Razzle24]

In my opinion the best place would be on the Rec.

I don't live near the rec - but i do disagree with it being used to build a new swimming pool.  Why should we loose 'green space'?  With all the new houses that have been build over the years in Marple e.g. on Dale road, Cross Lane, Hibbert lane etc we are at the risk of becoming very build up. 

[andrewbowden]

On location, don't forget that ultimately it would need to be land that the council owns.  As for what you'd do with the existing site, car parking, housing, office space.  Mini-park.  Sure a use would be found for it.

[wheels]

You also have the problem of what do you do with a big hole in the town centre if the current pool were to come down. A town centre that isn't in need of more commerical space.

[Howard]

If we were to get a new swimming pool - where would this be?  Would it be on the same site? There is no mention of this in the petition.

I would also like to know why the council  + local councillors have not resolved this issue years ago - it should have never got to this point, where the local community has lost the use of its swimming pool.

I posted about this a few weeks ago. There is no way that a town the size as Marple should have such poor sporting facilities. There are only a few places anywhere near the centre that could take a facility of the size needed and I suspect all of them are going to be used for housing in the next few years. It should have gone on the site used for the development at Eastwood Drive off Cross Lane, on the site of the old college buildings or on the site of the Dale Primary, but of course they all went for housing

In my opinion the best place would be on the Rec. The town would get far more "recreation" out of if than we currently do. However, you can bet that all the people around it would campaign intensely against it.

[marpleexile]

And it would need the community not to start a big campaign against it being built there...

This is the key problem. As has been mentioned on another thread, there are places that are big enough and under utilised enough, but it probably wouldn't get past the NIMBYs.

The Rec would be the most obvious, the industrial estate around the mill, and the fields near the Rugby club would be others.

[andrewbowden]

If we were to get a new swimming pool - where would this be?  Would it be on the same site? There is no mention of this in the petition.

This is a key point, and one I have mentioned a couple of times in this thread.  it's all very well demanding a new leisure centre, but all the pointless petitions and political sniping in the world aren't going to magically unveil a site in Marple that's convenient to and has the space it needs for a new leisure centre that has better facilities.

Yes, a new building could be better organised - two levels, gym upstairs perhaps with a studio.  Similar footprint with better facilities.  It could work.  But where?  Where?  Where?

If it's the existing site (and if you removed the existing car park a centre could spread out a lot more) then we'll be without a swimming pool AND a gym for years whilst they demolish and rebuild.  If it's a new site... well... where?  It would need space for parking.  It would need space for a building.  And it would need the community not to start a big campaign against it being built there...