Thank you to the Vale of White Horse District Council (VWHDC) for this press release.
The Abbey Meadow outdoor pool will open before the school summer holidays on Saturday, July 22nd. The pool will be open daily alongside the park splash pad until the start of September.
The kiosk, which is already open, has new and improved furniture.
Vale of White Horse District Council, which owns the site, agreed in 2021 with its leisure contractor GLL that the pool would open for a six-week season over the summer, the busiest time of year.
Cllr Debra Dewhurst, Cabinet Member for Leisure Centres and Community Buildings at Vale of White Horse District Council, said: “The pool is popular during the school holidays, but it is costly to run, and we have to balance this with the vital services we manage in the Vale.
We continue to look into ways in which we can save energy and running costs.”
Bookings for the pool will open for members and season ticket holders 7 days before the pool opens and 5 days before for non-members. It is advised that visitors book before they arrive via the Better UK app or website.
Fantastic news.
Cllr Debra; have you contacted Exmouth council yet, please say you have!
It would be helpful if someone from the Vale could remind everyone of the basis for the decision in 2021 to open the pool for only six weeks a year. I know that local government finance is tighter than ever, but it would be helpful to have an understanding of the costs of running the pool and the additional cost of Running it for a longer period during the summer. A few years ago, the pool used to open in late May.
It’ll be because they have to pay for it Freddie. GLL will pay a bit for the opportunity to run the leisure facilities…and do so as well or badly as they like as The Vale will pick up the tab. And the Vale will be quick to explain there’s no money.
How is the new unnecessary council headquarters building coming along? Was it £18m they managed to find?
I’m not sure if a new HQ is unnecessary or not but if you mean they should be using Abbey House, I gather it’s pretty much full. OCC rent most of it for adult social care staff, OT’s and SWs etc. It isn’t just sat there empty.
Thank you Laura I didn’t know that.
However….
“Reduce, reuse, recycle”. Let The Vale use the building now, OCC can rent any other empty office building…
I think south and vale use the ground floor currently, but they are a bit squashed in.
I don’t know why they rent it to OCC, I know until a few years ago, OCC social services staff for this area were based on the business park but then moved to Abbey house.
What is the income The Vale derives from renting Abbey House spent on? Perhaps some of it it could be used for underwriting the extra costs of opening the pool for longer?
I suspect that the money for the new council offices is from the insurance payout on Crowmarsh. Usually you have to use such monies to replace the asset you have lost, for obvious reasons.
Ah, ok… So “reduce, reuse, recycle” in mind but not in spirit… and, “for us”; not for “them”?
Hopefully in the new shiny headquarters they’ll have a telex machine to contact Exmouth council about free outdoor pool heating. Unless of course they can just continue to pay GLL to make a bad job of running it? However….please dont contact Fusion who seem to be able to better running Hinksey.
You have a good point Daniel. The Vale own the Abbey House and were located there for many years until the link up with SODC which to many appeared more like a “take over” of the Vale by South… Although Abingdon is not centrally located in so far as the South and Vale are concerned, I would be interested to know the rationale beyond this for building new offices when the Abbey House is there. May be it is the length of the lease with OCC but it would be nice to know!
Perhaps paralysing due diligence and no long tie-in, arduous and overly complicated contracts are only for well loved and useful independent cinemas…not for hotels and office blocks?