After 28 years in operation, the health suite at Pools on the Park was closed in March 2020 as a result of the Covid-19 lockdown and never reopened.
18 months later, Richmond Council announced in September 2021 that the facilities had:
…all now reached the end of their natural life and are no longer viable for repair.
In July 2022 the equipment and infrastructure was fully removed and the room was stripped back to bare floor and walls.
On 7 November 2023, the Environment, Sustainability, Culture and Sports Committee (ESCSC) voted in favour (6 for and 2 against) of converting the empty room to a group exercise studio.
For the full history, read on…
1992
Pools on the Park is closed for 9 months to carry out a £2.4M refurbishment (in partnership with Whitewater PLC) that adds a jacuzzi, sauna and steam room to the centre’s facilities.
2005
Under the management of Springhealth Leisure PLC, the health suite is refurbished with a new layout still containing a jacuzzi, sauna and steam room.
23 March 2020
Pools on the Park is closed as a result of the Covid-19 lockdown.
27 July 2021
Richmond Council announces that:
The Health Suite has had ongoing repairs over the last few years to the sauna, steam room and spa bath. However, more recent works have identified that the facilities have all now reached the end of the natural life and are no longer viable for repair.
https://haveyoursay.citizenspace.com/richmondecs/4125d6ca/
A survey of members and non-members runs until 3 September 2021 and asks if users would prefer to see refurbishment of the health suite or conversion to a group exercise studio.
8 November 2021
Complaint is filed with Richmond Council that the results of the health suite survey have not been published.
7 December 2021
Stage 1 response to complaint is received. Sarah Harries, POTP Centre Manager says:
“The results of the health suite consultation needed to be considered alongside other information. We made no commitment as to when or how the results would be shared with customers and the wider public. For this reason, I cannot uphold your complaint.”
24 February 2022
6 year Capital Programme and Funding budget is approved by Finance, Policy & Resources Committee. Page 12 of the budget document contains £187K budget for year 2022/23 allocated to ‘Pools on the Park – Health Suite Refurbishment’. This is the first time budget has been allocated for this project.
8 March 2022
Capital Programme and Funding budget is approved by full council.
8 July 2022
Richmond Council makes the following statement:
To enable the Council to consider the options for the future use of the Health Suite area, contractors will be attending Pools on the Park in the coming weeks to remove the existing equipment and to allow further investigation works to be undertaken.
Archived screenshot from Feel Good Fitness app
But not only the existing equipment was removed. The entire room was stripped back to the bare shell. Wall tiles, floor tiles, suspended ceiling… everything gone.
We’ve since discovered that Richmond Council did not apply for planning permission for these alterations, which was required due to Pools on the Park being a Grade II listed building.
4 August 2022
FOI request [1] filed with Richmond Council to provide results of the 2021 survey of POTP users along with several other questions:
- Which person is responsible for the management of this project at LBRUT?
- On what date was it known that these facilities were no longer viable for repair?
- On what date was the health suite last open for use by members?
- Why has it taken until July 2022 to remove the existing equipment bearing in mind that the facility has been closed for a considerable time?
- As of July 2022, why is LBRUT still at the stage of “considering the options for the future use of the Health Suite area”, rather than making an actual decision and putting the project into motion?
4 September 2022
No response is received on FOI request [1] within statutory time period of 20 working days, so an internal review is requested.
26 September 2022
6 year Capital Programme and Funding budget is approved by Finance, Policy & Resources Committee. Again, page 12 of the budget document contains £187K budget for year 2022/23 allocated to ‘Pools on the Park – Health Suite Refurbishment’.
4 October 2022
Response received after internal review of FOI request [1]. Questions are answered as follows:
- Which person is responsible for the management of this project at LBRUT? The Sports Service are leading on the initiation of the project. Recommendations made for change and improvement will be presented to Lead Members for approval.
- On what date was it known that these facilities were no longer viable for repair? There is no set date at which this decision was made but more of a culmination of issues including safety concerns, advice of service reports, repeated breakdowns, and failures of equipment.
- On what date was the health suite last open for use by members? The health suite would have been last available pre-COVID pandemic i.e. March 2020.
- Why has it taken until July 2022 to remove the existing equipment bearing in mind that the facility has been closed for a considerable time? The scheme of works is dictated by funds being available to undertake works to the area. The renovation of this part of the facility was subject to a capital bid process and therefore no works could be undertaken until such time as the funding was confirmed and appropriate commissioning of removal activities was agreed.
- As of July 2022, why is LBRUT still at the stage of “considering the options for the future use of the Health Suite area”, rather than making an actual decision and putting the project into motion? The decision on the future of the Health Suite area is subject to various factors such as cost, sustainability, ability to meet the changing landscape of the leisure industry etc. All potential options will be considered and a decision will be made by the Lead Members when presented with appropriate options.
However survey results are refused and an exemption is applied using clause 12(4)(d) of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.
26 October 2022
Richmond Council commissions Leisure-Net Solutions to carry out an online survey on leisure centres over the period of one month.
1 November 2022
Minutes for the ‘Q2 Quarterly Monitoring Report’ agenda item in ESCSC meeting says: “On the health suite and Pools in the Park, £187,000 has been allocated for its refurbishment.”
21 November 2022
Another internal review is requested for FOI request [1] since the exemption reason contained in the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 does not apply to an internal room in a leisure centre.
FOI request [2] filed with Richmond Council to provide communications regarding the health suite during 2019/2020/2021 in the following areas:
- Safety issues.
- Service reports.
- Equipment breakdown and failures.
- Scheduled maintenance.
- Closure of the entire health suite or specific facilities within it.
19 December 2022
Richmond Council refuses FOI request [2] on health suite communications on the grounds of cost.
22 December 2022
Response received after second internal review of FOI request [1]. Richmond Council acknowledges incorrect application of exemption in Environmental Information Regulations 2004 but still refuses to make 2021 survey results available, this time citing Section 22 of the FOI Act – “it has been concluded that the public interest lays in withholding the information on this occasion.” – and stating that the survey will be made available before the committee meeting in February 2023.
1 January 2023
ESCSC forward plan is published with the health suite item scheduled for 21/02/23 and leisure strategy item scheduled for ESCSC meeting on 28/03/23.
17 January 2023
Julia Neden-Watts, Chair of the ESCSC says in the discussion about the forward plan:
“I’ve already got a note here that the health suite will be linked with the leisure strategy, and that’s not going to be coming in February, but at some future date.”
https://richmond.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/733019/start_time/7183000
10 February 2023
ESCSC forward plan is published with the health suite and leisure strategy items both scheduled for the next ESCSC meeting on 24/04/23. Both items are now linked.
28 February 2023
6 year Capital Programme and Funding budget is approved by Finance, Policy & Resources Committee. For some reason, page 13 of the budget document now shows the £187K split between two years:
- £47K for year 2022/23
- £140K for year 2023/24
This is odd. Does it mean that £47K was already spent in 2022/23 on demolition of the health suite and consultants? £140K is the estimated cost of the approved group exercise studio, but of course the decision was not to be made until 7 November 2023. We will be pursuing these questions.
7 March 2023
Capital Programme and Funding budget is approved by full council.
1 April 2023
ESCSC forward plan is published with the health suite item scheduled for 20/06/23 but leisure strategy item is now scheduled for ESCSC meeting on 05/09/23. Items have become unlinked.
23 June 2023
ESCSC forward plan is published with the health suite and leisure strategy items both scheduled for ESCSC meeting on 05/09/23. Items are linked again.
12 July 2023
Results of the Leisure-Net Solutions leisure centre survey are published. On page 8 in the Considerations and Recommendations section, it contains this interesting paragraph:
Health suite and spin/group exercise are common themes
Analysis of the open comments shows that the absence of a Health suite/spa, particularly at Pools in the Park, and the provision of more group exercise/spin space and classes are important issues. When asked which facilities on the same site as a leisure centre encourage you to use it more, six specifically said that they were missing a health suite, while two wanted more studios. But more striking was the numbers that mentioned these facilities when answering the question “Is there anything else you would like us to consider when thinking about the future of leisure centres in the Borough?”. Here 74 respondents stated that they were missing a Health suite/Spa whilst 13 wanted more studio space.
14 August 2023
What had been previously stated by Julia Neden-Watts at the ESCSC meeting on 17/01/23 is announced to residents with Richmond Council issuing an update on the health suite on the website and inside the Feel Good Fitness app:
We know that residents are frustrated that the health suite at Pools on The Park continues to be out of use during this period, and we want to reassure users of the leisure centres that we are committed to providing leisure services which meet the needs of our residents.
To ensure that investment into our facilities is made in line with the evidence gathered for the final strategy, any decisions regarding the health suite will be made once the strategy work is complete.
25 August 2023
ESCSC forward plan is published with the health suite and leisure strategy items both scheduled for ESCSC meeting on 07/11/23. Both items are still linked.
30 October 2023
ESCSC forward plan is published with neither the health suite or leisure strategy items present. Leisure strategy seems to be been curiously renamed to ‘Options Appraisal for Leisure’ and is scheduled for ESCSC meeting on 16/01/24. This appears to be an interim report, not the full leisure strategy.
31 October 2023
Agenda is published for the ESCSC meeting. There is an agenda item for the health suite but leisure strategy is not present.
2 November 2023
It is noticed that the 2021 survey results are missing from the background papers for the meeting. Author of the report, Matthew Eady, Assistant Director of Leisure is informed.
3 November 2023
After over 2 years, a dismissed complaint and refused FOI request, the highly elusive 2021 survey results are finally made public:
Now we know why Richmond Council didn’t want residents to see the results of this survey. It demonstrates overwhelming support for the health suite.
Most revealing are the 20 pages of freeform responses (starting on page 27). 182 out of 264 freeform responses supported the refurbishment of the health suite. These are just a handful:
7 November 2023
The Environment, Sustainability, Culture and Sports Committee meets to decide on the fate of the health suite. Six members vote for the proposal to convert it into a group exercise studio, two members vote against. Read our full report of the meeting.
Since budget had been allocated for ‘Pools on the Park – Health Suite Refurbishment’, and ‘refurbishment’ has a very specific meaning (i.e. not conversion to another type of facility), then we have to query if this decision was even valid according to the council’s constitution. We have started to investigate this topic.
As well as speaking at the meeting, former health suite user Alan Fransman submitted a written question which Richmond Council responded to at the end of November.
8 November 2023
With not a moment to waste, the next day Richmond Council publishes the pre-prepared news item on its £140K misuse of allocated funding.
23 January 2024
A non-existent budget request to reallocate £181K of remaining funding from ‘health suite refurbishment’ to ‘group exercise studio’ is brought to the Finance, Policy and Resources Committee by Fenella Merry, Director of Finance. The non-existent budget request is approved by 7 members with Cllr Caroline Wren voting against (but not because the budget request doesn’t exist but due to her unhappiness on the way the health suite issue has been handled).
30 January 2024
At the full council meeting, Cllr Julia Neden-Watts is asked when the non-existent budget request was resolved by the ESCSC. She does not give a date (because it never happened) but instead makes a false statement that the ESCSC made a decision to repurpose funds on 07/11/23. At some point you’d think they’d stop digging themselves into ever deeper holes but apparently not.
The Green Party bring a convoluted motion to investigate what has been going on but are challenged by a point of order (that later transpires to be incorrect) and decide to withdraw the motion.
20 February 2024
At the ESCSC meeting, Matthew Eady is asked for clarification on the health suite feasibility study. We do not get to hear his response and are instead given a written answer, which tells us absolutely nothing. Yet another FOI has now been filed.
Cllr Chas Warlow attempts to get some clarity on what is going on with an investigation with the way the council has handled this matter.
27 February 2024
After weeks of delay, five overdue corporate complaints are intentionally misrepresented by Abdus Choudhury, Monitoring Officer in order to refuse to investigate them. They will now be escalated to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.
29 February 2024
The Finance, Policy and Resources Committee formally approves the capital programme budget with £181K now reallocated to ‘Pools on the Park group exercise studio’. Senior council staff are called out for playing their role very well throughout this debacle. Councillors are called out for not standing up for residents.