On 21 November 2023, Richmond Council held a Community Conversation event at RHACC in Richmond. The event was livestreamed and towards the end, at 1h49m a question was asked about Pools on the Park.
Jack Sosnierz
Thank you. Good evening. I’m Jack, from North Richmond, and a Richmond resident since 1974. And my question is about Pools on the Park. Are there any plans to upgrade this facility? Changing rooms, gym, very low level of hygiene. We’ve lost sauna, we’ve lost steam room over the years. And it seems that nothing is getting better there. A current membership, full membership is £750 a year. So… some people could even pay more if they were facilities upgraded. Thank you.
Cllr Chas Warlow
Yes. Yeah. This issue came to the last Environment Committee, and the plans are to refurbish that part of Pools on the Park that used to house the health suite and turn it into… more like a flexible space with some gym equipment as well. but the health suite itself is not going to be reinstated. That’s… that was the decision that that was made at that committee. Personally, I disagreed with that. But the… that that’s the state of play, unless anyone else wants to add anything. That’s as far as…
Jack Sosnierz
It’s a pity actually, because this used to be the only health suite in the borough out of the whole centres we had and we have nothing now. And I think if you ask people who use it, they will tell you what they think about it.
Cllr Chas Warlow
Yeah, well, I’ve heard what they think about it and yeah. And I can’t say I disagree with it, but I mean, that was the decision that was taken.
Jack Sosnierz
Well. Any decision can be changed. Thank you.
Cllr Richard Warren
So yes, my understanding is from that very same Environment Committee meeting is that they are going to be looking at where else in the borough a health suite could be introduced. So, yeah, I used to go to that in the 90s and noughties. the health suite at Pools on the Park. It’s a shame to see it go, I agree, but I think at the end of the day, there was… there were issues with both the cost of renovating it or introducing a new one, in fact. And also there was the energy issue as well, because of course, we’re trying to make this borough a greener borough, and we have reduced our CO2 emissions enormously. And we didn’t want this to be… become a source of more CO2 emissions.
So the idea is, well, how can we have those kinds of facilities with fewer CO2 emissions and energy consumption? The problem is although those kind of things exist. it’s a listed building. And the planning law is a problem here because you can’t really make the changes you’d need to make to bring those greener sources of energy into the building without breaking planning law. This is my understanding of what happened at the meeting. but, yeah, as I say, the the committee also agreed to look for a new place, a suitable location where this could be done, where there could be one.
Chair
I’ve been asked for… to allow for one more question. And that is definitely the last one. Okay. Thank you. If you hold it close enough.
Cllr Alan Juriansz
Hi, I’m Alan Juriansz, the spokesman for sports in the borough. And first part of that question, I think, was about renovating Pools on the Park as a whole. And the… there is significant funding already allocated in our capital projects plan to completely refurbish Pools on the Park anyway. The… that is only waiting on the finalisation of the leisure strategy, which has been delayed, unfortunately for quite some time. But, we have a new Assistant Director of Leisure who started in post in September and he’s… and it has been delayed again because he is obviously taking up the new post, he wants to have a proper look at it himself before we signed it off to… we’ve… so it is happening. It’s coming to committee in January, the first option paper and then hopefully it should be finalised by the spring and the investment should start to go in then.
That’s for the whole Pools on the Park, the health suite itself — the decision was taken two weeks ago at the Environment Committee to invest in a group exercise studio rather than the health suite for… this was looked at very carefully and discussed. I think, councillors on the panel that were at that meeting, are well aware and several residents spoke at that meeting as well. It was debated very, very freely and frankly. And I think the decision, ultimate decision was made to put the investment into a group exercise studio because it would meet the needs of more residents. And in terms of physical exercise, which physical activity, which is what we’re trying to promote rather than the health suite. It’s unfortunate and I realised that some people who wanted health suites are very upset about that. But, that was the decision that was taken, and I think it probably was the right one in the end.
Chair
Thank you. That was the last contribution then for this evening.