West Lothian councillors have agreed to drain Armadale swimming pool as a safety measure, a process expected to take up to three months. The move will reduce the building's running costs from £10,000 a month to £7,500, according to a report presented to the council's Executive on Tuesday.
Background to the closure
The pool, known as the Jim Sibbald Community Pool, has been closed since August 2023 when West Lothian Leisure shut it to save money. It is the only closed pool that has been retained while discussions over its future continue. The council has pledged to work with a community campaign group that wants to see the pool reopened.
A key change from a meeting in March, which had tabled consultation on the building’s future, suggested that drainage would cost around £500 and could be done without causing damage to infrastructure. An eventual refill of the pool would cost slightly less, a senior council officer confirmed.
Community campaign gains momentum
Jillian Dunnigan, chair of The Jim Sibbald Community Pool Group, told the Executive meeting that more than 5,000 people had signed a petition to save the pool from permanent closure. The petition requests that the council fully consider community support, the importance of the asset to the local area, and all viable options for retention, reopening, partnership, or sustainable future community use before any irreversible decision is taken.
Ms Dunnigan argued that the pool provided access to exercise and active life skills needed in a town facing significant social disadvantage. Answering a question from Conservative group leader Councillor Damian Doran-Timson, she said that rebuilding the facility would be much more difficult than protecting it in the first place.
Previous attempts and new impetus
The council Executive agreed in March to an eight-week statutory consultation on the building’s future, given that it is a Common Good property. A lengthy negotiation with Armadale Thistle FC, which had wanted to take ownership, had foundered. New impetus to save the pool was launched by the SNP group, which had supported shuttering in 2023, offering no alternative to West Lothian Leisure’s plans to close the pool along with pools in Livingston and Broxburn.
While the SNP initially called for delays and a full cost-benefit analysis of the closures, they voted in favour of the final proposals to prevent the insolvency of the entire West Lothian Leisure (Xcite) trust, which would have forced the closure of all leisure facilities in the area. Ms Dunnigan said few in Armadale had been consulted before the closure, explaining why the now non-political campaign had garnered such support.
Council report highlights public interest
Scott Hughes, the council’s Strategic Property Asset Manager, said in his report: “There has been significant public interest in this consultation and, having considered all the representations received through the various means set out above, officers consider that the vast majority of respondents wish to see the swimming pool facilities reopened, with the main drivers being improved physical and mental health and well-being, community cohesion and a generally held perception that Armadale has suffered from a lack of investment and an erosion of services and facilities in recent years.”
He added that council staff were keen to work with the steering group to see the pool remain open under community ownership. The report noted: “Officers from the Community Wealth Building team have sought to bring together and co-ordinate those interests and a community-led steering group has now been formed. It has begun work to establish governance arrangements and potential legal structures and is actively working to explore a viable community-led operating model for the swimming pool. Officers from Property Services and the Community Wealth Building team have supported the steering group with any queries to date and have committed to providing sight of any building-related information held by the council should proposals progress.”
Structural safety confirmed
Mr Hughes’ report added: “Officers commissioned external structural engineers to undertake an inspection of the pool. Investigation and research has confirmed that the original pool basin was emptied and retained when the swimming pool building was demolished and rebuilt in the 1990’s and as such, the consultant structural engineers have confirmed that draining the pool now in a regulated and managed manner will not result in any material or structural damage to the pool.”
Political and community reactions
Independent Councillor Andrew McGuire congratulated the campaigners, telling Ms Dunnigan: “You and the campaign team have done sterling work and consciously tried to make it apolitical and that’s to your credit. Turning the matters at hand it’s unfortunate that at the financial situation that the council is in that it had to make the difficult decision to close the Jim Sibbald swimming pool. I’m the fifth generation of my family to have lived in Armadale and I have never known anything like this in the town. This is a real genuine live issue. It’s not just about the swimming pool but it’s about decimation of public services as the result of public sector squeezes. We are here to listen to the views of the people who have brought us here. My hope is that we can work together to find a solution.”
Labour councillor Susan Manion said: “This is about the community itself. Huge thanks to the campaign group and to Jillian for the huge amounts of work you have done already. You have asked for time and we need to give time they make sure there are appropriate solutions found for the community. I know that this town feels like it has been left behind and that this is the last straw.” She added that she supported the community council’s assertion that if the pool could not be provided in its original form, “an alternative community-led use of the building” should be pursued.
After the meeting, local SNP councillor Lynda Kenna told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “This is a hugely positive step for Armadale. Local people have made their views clear throughout this consultation, and I am delighted that the council is now backing a community-led approach. I want to thank everyone who took part and helped keep the future of the pool firmly on the agenda.”
