Swimming pool to close after council vote
BBCA popular community swimming pool will be closed to save money despite a passionate campaign to save it.
Older people, schoolchildren and lower income families are likely to be most affected by the closure of Northbrook swimming pool, according to a report prepared for Exeter City Council's cabinet before it made the decision.
Northbrook is the third leisure facility to be closed since 2018 by the Labour-led authority, which is understood to have spent about £44m on the new St Sidwell's Point facility which opened in 2022.
City council leader Phil Bialyk said it was a "very difficult decision" but fundamentally the council had to deal with "low usage compared to high running costs".
Campaigners against the closure of the pool wore black at the meeting which made the decision to express their "grief" at the loss of the facility.
Jill Whitelegg, a regular user, said: "I'm so disappointed but not surprised. It's very sad for a lot of people.
"I'm almost wanting to give up swimming because I don't want to go to the other places and that's going to be detrimental to my health because it keeps me fit."
Staff at Northbrook were told in February a decision had already been made to close the pool due to leisure centre service budget cuts of £586,000, but, after a public outcry, Exeter City Council held a six-week public consultation.
The consultation found there were "barriers" to Northbrook users going to other swimming pools, such as affordability, mobility issues and poor public transport.
The report said the closure of the pool would have "real-world impacts on many of those users".
More than 2,000 people signed a petition against the pool closure, which forced the city council to scrutinise the impact of closing the pool and ending its lease with the site owners, the Northbrook Trust.
Michael Mitchell, council Liberal Democrat group leader, criticised the authority's handling of the closure as "no way to run a council".
He said: "We've seen numerous community leisure facilities sacrificed - Clifton Hill, Pyramids and now Northbrook pool - because of the deep debt Labour have amassed building St Sidwell's Point.
"The state of the pool building is being weaponized when it is clear that a phased investment plan is possible."
Green Party leader Diana Moore said the council's cabinet was "washing their hands of Northbrook pool and users' needs".
She said: "They have never explored genuine options for working with the community.
"Labour are just looking to sink a much valued community asset that has been run down on their watch."
In its briefing report ahead of Tuesday's decision, council officers said there had been "extensive efforts to drive income and footfall" at the pool but "usage and revenue figures have seen little improvement".
The report said Northbrook needed extensive repair works totalling an estimated £1.55m and work to provide disabled facilities which would cost an estimated £450,000-£550,000.
Bialyk told the meeting the issue had caused him and colleagues "sleepless nights".
He said: "We must do what is best for all of Exeter."
He said it was "simply not acceptable" to continue to operate a pool that did not comply with the Disability Discrimination Act and the Equality Act, and that the council could not warrant spending £2.1m on modernisation works.
The city council said it would help the community to negotiate with the Northbrook Trust regarding the possibility of a community-run pool.
Follow BBC Devon on X, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].