Great news for Jubilee Pool

Tonight Penzance Town Council voted unanimously to put money into the grant bid to central government for our lido. As a part we undertake to enter negotiations with Cornwall Council and in partnership with the Friends of Jubilee Pool to have it devolved to the town. 

Those of you that read my earlier blog will know I had serious problems with the way this was went about by Cornwall Council. In summary we were informed last thursday there would be a meeting tonight and it was make or break for the grant application due in this friday the 9th of May (then in hands of govt to decide). Not enough time to fully consider the merits of the proposal.

Nevertheless I spoke and my main thrust was that yes was the only answer. The thought of losing this as an asset was unbearable.  Further the idea of having a derelict pool in such a prominent position was an unbearable one.

I did however criticise Cornwall Council for not coming to Penzance Town Council (and indeed the Friends of Jubilee Pool) sooner. This is after all the third application and we played no part in the first two bids. We should have been given ample time but weren't. I also criticised the fact that this could easily have been funded from Cornwall Council's capital budget rather than the devolution pot. I explained that this budget was £675 million for the years 2013 to 2017.

Both Cornwall Councillors present (Cornelius Olivier and Jim McKenna) criticised me for this, defended Cornwall Council spending and explained I was categorically wrong. I explained to both that I would show them the link and I have emailed them both. 

I take it from this that our Cornwall Councillors haven't lobbied for capital funding to be used for the pool and have little knowledge of the budget itself. Which is a real shame. My pride aside and disappointment that I have a better grasp of funding available to capital projects than our Cornwall Councillors. It was a very good meeting.

Now indeed the future of the Jubilee Pool is finally looking up, notwithstanding the whims of Whitehall and Eric Pickles who will decide the grants fate. We could be looking at an investment of nearly £3 million in the pool. Which will not only repair the storm damage but repair and refurbish those parts that haven't been good for a while. Hopefully we can go from a tired and dated structure in a prominent position to one we can all be proud of. This is not only thanks to Cornwall Councillors, town councillors but also to the indefatigable Friends of Jubilee Pool and the 4000 who signed the petition calling on Cornwall Council to match fund the bid.

*****UPDATE*****

Jim McKenna replied this morning and explained he thought I was talking about this years revenue budget not the four yearly capital budget. I can only think that as he was sitting behind me he didn't hear me clearly and perhaps I was not speaking loudly enough....

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Further update

Councillor Olivier (also Labour's general candidate for the St Ives constituency) emailed he disagreed with my points in a rather rude fashion accusing me of being parochial and ill informed. Cornelius ignored the fact I was right about the capital budget and what he said in the meeting was wrong. Amazing how a year changes things last year he along with Tim Dwelly wrote to the Cornishman including the sentence: "Our aim is to get a fair share of Cornwall Council investment ." But now the story is there's no money and we should bow and grovel for a few crumbs from the table...

Should Penzance Town Council not fund the Jubilee Pool?

Another blog and I'm afraid another can of worms and like all cans of worms who knows what the repercussions could be. Apologies for the provocative title but lets face it many don't care about local issues. I stand ready to see all those who comment and bitch at me without reading this blog fully and understanding it, so please if you can spare a few minutes. Things get built and things get pulled down, public services get closed down and long after the consultation process and campaigners have accepted their cause is lost, the things happens people start to get angry, that something happened in this or that way. I'm hoping this is a slightly different issue, without any risk of exaggeration the Friends of Jubilee Pool are ecstatically gushing about the 3742 people that signed the petition titled Save the Jubilee Pool in Penzance and provide match funding for the application to the Coastal Communities Fund and particularly the comments made on the petition site and I can't say I blame them.

The Jubilee Pool is an icon of Penzance, it's prominence and reputation means having it derelict for perhaps months years or forever is a terrifying thought. I'm not going to wax lyrical about it's importance as a leisure facility, why we need to protect public services or any of the such. To me it speaks for itself, so lets get on to the nuts and bolts.

There was a confusing story about the future of the pool, first Cornwall Council sent out press releases proclaiming their sadness that a grant application to the Coastal Communities Fund was rejected. Then after a number of individuals brought the truth to light, another press release which added the words because we did not match fun the bid (thus dooming it to failure). Thanks to pressure from the Friends of Jubilee Pool, the powers that be have had a rethink. They are now ready to resubmit a bid but it needs to be done by the ninth of May (7 days from now). Which is all relatively simple.

Where it gets complicated is the Town Council's involvement, though my letterbox yesterday was papers declaring a Special Meeting of the Town Council on next tuesday the 6th of May. With a briefing this morning with senior officers and cabinet members in Penzance (a sure sign of their commitment). Still less than a week to consider what was being proposed and come to a decision. Bearing in mind this is the first official papers, discussion or anything to come before town councillors. Now, in broad brushstrokes the answer is so simple, yes the town council should support the pool, but broad brushstrokes it ain't.

There are two recommendations to the council to deliberate upon, but in fact they are not really two they are completely intertwined. Basically it is an offer from Cornwall Council, that basically amounts to an ultimatum. Made more acute by the surprise of the suggestion, the fact it has not been trailed and it needs to be decided now or never. Although Cornwall Council have done a u turn on putting money into the grant bid, it's not that simple. They want firstly for the town council to contribute £40,000 from the Devolution Budget to the bid, which adds more money and demonstrates a local partnership to Eric Pickles along with the petition signatures and the Friend's of Jubilee Pool. (The Friend's are fundraising for this at the moment see their website to contact them.)

The opportunity or catch depending on your view is that Cornwall Council's (very generous) contribution to the bid is also from their devolution pot. So this is not money for putting in bids, capital expenditure or any such thing. So the second part of the recommendation to the town council is that we commit to working together to take over the pool ourselves (or perhaps in partnership with the Friends). Sweetening the deal is the offer of perhaps taking over the car park across the road (St Anthony's) to offset some of the cost of running the pool. Also funding for the transition period of a takeover.

This puts me in a quandary frankly, by the principles my answer is overwhelming yes. Should the town council take on more services, should things be devolved? the answer is yes. Should the pool remain open? is it worth public money to keep it running? yes. But as I wrote above it's not just broad brushstrokes, it would be foolish to take on services without considering the financial implications. Which brings me to the nub of the bid, attached to the agenda for tuesday's meeting is an engineers/ consultants report detailing what works need to be done, to repair the storm damage and work that has been long overdue. The headline cost is estimated at over £2 million. A facility that apparently is uninsurable from storm damage.

So what do you think people? In case it's not clear above, this is a zero sum game, Penzance Town Council says no and the broader community support is not demonstrated in the bid and a lot more importantly Cornwall Council's devolution money goes somewhere else. In other words, unless someone wins the lottery any time soon the pool has no future, without a yes on tuesday.

Now until tuesday is precious little time to consider the ramifications of the decision we will make then, so help me out...

Sign the petition to save Penzance's Jubilee Pool

Not a great deal to say on this one. SIGN the PETITION is the important thing.

Despite press releases claiming disappointment on losing the grant funding and vague commitments to the future of the sea lido. Unfortunately this was not backed up by match funding in the last round of grants. Enthuastic rhetoric aside the reality was an immensely short sighted approach by Cornwall Council, spurning a large amount of money by not adding in some of their money a grant application that was destined to fail.

Save our lido! #Penzance #Jubileepool pic.twitter.com/i3J9QLIfEj
— Rob Simmons (@cernyw) March 18, 2014

The petition seeks a new approach where a successful bid for grant funding can be achieved by Cornwall Council putting money in as well. Please sign this, we need to pressurise Cornwall Council (and Cornwall Councilors) that people do want the pool and it needs to be funded. Please sign here.