Back it or lose it, is the warning to Montrose on the plan for a new £10 million swimming pool due to begin work next year, along with expansion of the town’s sports centre.
While critics have called for the plan to be shelved, Montrose councillor Mark Salmond has warned that would mean the money going to another Angus project and Montrose having no swimming pool at all in the future.
He warned, “Apathy is not going to work here. It is up to the Montrose people. They need to start speaking up, because we have other people fighting different corners.”
He told Montrose Community Council the provision of £10 million had been specifically allowed for in the council’s capital financial plan since February 2008.
The director of corporate services and the head of finance had jointly confirmed that capital plan was affordable, sustainable and prudent. That view had remained at subsequent annual update reports provided to the council both this year and last.
Mr Salmond said, “Council officers have identified the replacement of the pool as an essential requirement and the affordability has been repeatedly confirmed by officers based on works commencing early next year.
“The opportunity presently exists to provide the much needed new facility, but deferral would increase the risk that the present facility will become unserviceable and the pool provision in Montrose could be lost. Also the funding provision presently available may not endure into the future.”
He added that the joint campus approach being adopted for wet and dry leisure provision on a single site had been recognised as a recurring saving by the leisure director, and if the project did not proceed then alternative savings would need to be identified.
Opposition councillors in Arbroath had their own political reasons for opposing the project, he said.
He was more disappointed in the few people in Montrose who had made their opposition public, expressing views he did not consider representative.
He said, “I have not heard anybody say they don’t want a new pool. When we had our consultation, the objectors represented only around 1% of the users. We have to respond to the other 99%.
“The truth is if we have a major failure in the existing Montrose pool it will close forever. The council will not be able to put together the funding package that is now in place for a new pool so Montrose could be without any swimming facility at all in the future.”