Dundee school swimming pools will NOT be shut, council leader confirms

Plans to close five school swimming pools in Dundee will not go ahead, the council’s leader has confirmed.

Dundee City Council leader Mark Flynn has revealed the proposals to close pools at five secondary schools in the city will not be part of the administration’s budget proposals.

Last year council officers unveiled a series of potential money saving measures aimed at plugging a muti-million shortfall.

Among the options put forward was closing pools at Baldragon, Grove and Harris academies, St John’s RC High School and St Paul’s RC High School.

Officers said the closures would have saved Dundee City Council around £100,000 per pool each year.

Dundee City Council’s SNP administration is yet to publicly publish its own budget proposals.

However, council leader Mark Flynn has now confirmed that the pool closures will not form part of the administration’s budget this year.

“We are not going to be shutting pools, this administration will not be shutting swimming pools this year,” said Mr Flynn.

“That’s got to be clear we will not be doing that, I’m quite happy to put that out there now.

“(The school swimming pools) will be retained for a lot of reasons, notwithstanding the safety of the young folk who are getting trained to swim in that service.”

Budget consultation

A four-week public consultation was launched in November which sought feedback on the proposals.

One of the questions asked the public how many pools, if any, would they support the closure of.

The majority – 68% – of those who answered this question said they did not want to see any pools shut.

The council leader also confirmed that the administration will not remove the revenue budget it provides to support community regeneration in the city.

Officers had estimated the cut would save the local authority £452,000 in both the 2025/26 and 2026/27 financial years.

Mr Flynn added: “Another thing I’d like to reassure our communities as well is that the communities regeneration fund is not going to be cut, it’s going to be saved that’s not going to be touched.

“That’s still going to be giving the funding to the communities to use the revenue to do projects, work in their communities and support the vulnerable folk within communities as well.

“We are going to be protecting communities, that’s the bottom line.”

Dundee City Council to set budget next week

Other proposals suggested by council officials include reducing grey bin collections to once every three weeks. Food waste collections could also be cut to once every two weeks.

It’s also proposed burgundy bin collections be cut to once every four weeks.

Council chiefs say this would save the local authority £134,000 in 2025/26 and a further £268,000 the following year.

Dundee City Council will set its budget at a special full council meeting next week, where other political groups will also set out their ideas, however, the SNP administration holds a majority.