A community swimming pool in Ryde has secured vital funding to help it face the challenges of coronavirus.
The charity-run Waterside Pool will benefit from an £82,000 cash windfall from the National Leisure Centre Recovery Fund, launched by Sport England last year.
The money will help plug significant COVID-relayed losses sustained by the pool during the pandemic.
Isle of Wight Council officers worked closely with staff and trustees of the Waterside Community Trust to put forward a bid. Earlier this week they received the good news it had been successful.
Georgina Bottriell, chairman of the Waterside Community Trust, said it was great recognition for the Island. She said:
“On behalf of all the trustees of the Waterside Community Trust, we wish to express our enormous thanks to the council in helping to secure these funds to aid our COVID recovery and survival.
“We are so extremely grateful for the work that officers did over the Christmas period to make this happen.
“This money will allow us to continue to provide essential leisure provision by preserving our centre for future generations and will assist with health recovery and swimming excellence in Ryde.”
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Councillor Wayne Whittle, Cabinet member for leisure, added:
“This is great news and I am pleased we were able to play our part in ensuring the survival of this much-loved community hub with this successful application.
“Facilities such as Waterside Pool sit at the heart of our communities and play a vital role in helping people to be active. They will be crucial in our Island’s recovery from coronavirus and bring about wider health, wellbeing and community benefits.”
Browns Golf Course should be taken into community ownership. It was a thriving business under the previous lease holders but they could only do so much and I’m sure they could have developed it further if they had been given a longer lease and terms that would have allowed repair of the building. A ONE YEAR lease!! previous tenants declined to renew the lease because of it. The Council closed this business, no one else, so I suggest they get down there and start mowing the grass and repairing the broken guttering instead of letting the place deteriorate further.
Good. For once, some money going on a worthy cause and not being wasted on rubbish.
Says 6 comments posted, but I only see two up here. What has happened to the other four ?
It’s almost impossible to run a swimming pool at a profit and Waterside Pool will always need some public money to keep going. It follows that the pool should really be run by the local Town Council, who are answerable to the public rather than a “Community” trust, who are answerable to no one.