New Pool Investigation - Community Update
16 October 2008
Blaenavon Town Council met with the Leader and Chief Executive of Torfaen Council in a closed meeting on 15 October 2008 to discuss possible funding options for a new pool within the town.
The town council hoped that any new pool could be built and funded as part of the new school and leisure facilities. However, the Leader and Chief Executive explained that the borough council could neither afford the build cost nor meet the ongoing operating losses, which was why the original pool had closed.
The Leader told the town council that if it could find the money, he would do all he could to help it and community groups find a suitable site and ensure they had the necessary officer support to build a new pool.
The town council is now looking into various funding options such as grants or prudential borrowing to build the pool, and at the potential of raising council tax precepts in Blaenavon and Pontypool to meet the running costs.
31 July 2008
On 10th July, the Consultant engaged to provide a cost estimate for building and running a new pool in the town on a community enterprise basis presented their findings to Blaenavon Town Council. A copy of the Consultant's full and final report| can be viewed here. The Town Council subsequently met to consider the findings in the report and have since asked for a meeting with the Leader and Chief Executive of Torfaen County Borough Council, which is likely to take place in September. It is the Town Council’s view that a pool is needed and they will be asking the Local Authority to fund the building of the pool as part of the Blaenavon Community Campus and to fund the anticipated annual running losses.
30 April 2008
We met with representatives from Blaenavon Town Council on 1 April 2008 to evaluate the bids that had been received from three consultants to provide a cost estimate for building and operating a new pool in the town on a community enterprise basis. The Town Council agreed on 9th April to appoint Knight, Kavanagh and Page, who will be reporting their findings to a Town Council meeting late in June.
31 March 2008
Three quotations for providing a cost estimate to build and operate a new pool on a community enterprise basis elsewhere in the town were received on 17 March 2008. We will meet with representatives from the Town Council to evaluate these quotations against agreed criteria and discuss the appointment process. It is highly likely that a special meeting of the Town Council will be called during April to appoint the successful consultant, who will then have approximately 8 weeks to undertake their research and report their findings to the Town Council.
29 February 2008
We attended the Town Council meeting on 13 February 2008 and agreed with the Town Council the brief that will be used to employ completely independent consultants to provide a cost estimate for building and operating a community run new pool in the town as well as identifying possible sources of funding. Torfaen County Borough Council information and statistics and the Business Case from BLAST will be provided to the consultant as part of their brief. Torfaen County Borough Council will not be building a new pool in the town so the brief will be used by the Town Council and community groups to determine if and how they may wish to proceed in respect of constructing and running a pool on a community enterprise basis.