Pressure is mounting on Angus Council to produce figures to justify spending £10 million on a Montrose swimming pool which protesters claim is merely an excuse to expand the town’s sports centre.
Work on the pool is scheduled to begin next year, allied with an expansion of the sports centre. The site of the existing pool, which is said to be past its sell-by date, will be placed on the open market.
Montrose councillor Mark Salmond claims that building a stand-alone pool is not cost-effective but opposition SNP councillors say that no report has been produced to support his argument.
Councillor Donald Morrison said, “Despite requests for a copy of a report supposedly detailing the costs of a like-for-like replacement, I have yet to receive it.”
His stance is backed by Montrose townspeople, who have called for full disclosure of the figures.
Forbes Inglis said, “For those of us who will foot the bill at the end of the day there are questions that should be answered. We need to know how much it would cost to run and repair the existing pool over, say, the next 10 years.
“I appreciate that might be a difficult question but surely someone somewhere must have already done a rough calculation. Then there is the question of whether the building of a new pool can go ahead because it is a capital project and so unaffected by cuts to revenue spending.
“While that is true up to a point it is also true that borrowing itself has a cost and we need to know what will be the cost of the capital over the same period.”
Mr Salmond has warned that if the money is not spent on the pool it will go to another capital project elsewhere in Angus but Mr Inglis said, “If that is correct it may be the system needs to be looked at. Certainly it is difficult for a layperson to understand how the need to make cuts is to be balanced against expenditure at this level.”
The sports centre could be closed for up to two years during construction of the pool and the council is also being called on to give an account of the costs of hiring other buildings and suitably equipping them to provide alternative venues.
Another critic said, “There is no doubt whatsoever the proposals are to increase the capacity of the sports centre to enable Montrose Academy to have further indoor sports facilities. At present the academy has first call on the sports centre bookings.
“Try and get a booking during daytime on school days and you are told none is available due to academy usage. Are they also going to have first call on the pool?”ThreatMr Morrison said the threat to either back the pool plan or lose it was shameful.
“Councillor Salmond claims 99% of those who responded to a consultation backed a replacement pool but did they really support a much reduced swimming facility tagged on to a refurbished sports centre?” he said.
“Montrose pool may be in need of either refurbishment or replacing but why has the burgh sports centre suddenly been identified as a high priority for such an expensive refurbishment ahead of other projects?
“With huge local authority budget cuts coming over the next five years, the truth is all council services will be affected in some way. Councillor Salmond needs to stop covering his eyes and ears to the realities of this, be brave enough to revisit all capital spending projects and investigate what facilities really can be provided for his constituents and the wider Angus population.”