Community / Parent council calls for closure of Scalloway pool to be paused
THE SCALLOWAY Primary School parent council has added its voice to growing concern over the planned closure of the village’s swimming pool, saying the lack of notice is “deemed totally unacceptable”.
It is calling on the pool’s operator Shetland Recreational Trust (SRT) to pause the closure – which is slated for the end of March – to allow time for community analysis of relevant data and future planning.
It would like the SRT to keep the pool open for at least a further financial year, to March 2027, to allow for “meaningful consultation”.
Meanwhile Scalloway Community Council has now formally objected to the closure, citing “strong and sustained demand and its integral role in local and central Shetland education” – while it claims there are “unanswered questions” about the decision-making process.
Announcing the closure on Friday, the SRT said it was attempting to secure its wider long-term sustainability by consolidating leisure provision in Shetland – and pointed to Scalloway’s distance from other pools, such as the Clickimin in Lerwick.
But the Scalloway Parent Council said the school community is “hugely disappointed” by SRT’s decision to close the local pool which it said has been a “mainstay of Shetland education provision” for 32 years.
Pupils aged five to nine years currently receive swimming instruction at the pool as part of PE lessons, and both individual and group sessions are booked for pupils with additional support needs.
The parent council said closing the building and PE classes moving to other pools will increase the “cost, time and logistical complication of teaching coastal community children lifesaving swimming skills”.
It will also restrict the variety of activities available to those with an individualised timetable, it said in a statement released to the media.
But the closure will not just affect the school community in Scalloway, the parent council said, adding that it will also have an impact on areas like Hamnavoe, Tingwall, Whiteness, Nesting and Fair Isle.
The parent council also highlighted how the Scalloway pool operates an “extensive and oversubscribed” programme of private children’s swimming classes which are timetabled to begin as the day’s formal learning ends.
“Synergy between Scalloway school and pool is longstanding and highly-evolved, underpinning the continued existence of this warm, safe community wellbeing space which is open to everyone even when schools are closed,” the parent council said in its statement.
Chair of Scalloway School parent council Caroline Shewan said: “Numerous parents and carers have shared their individual concerns about pool closure with the school parent council and how it will impact our school bairns.
“Of particular concern is the impact on those with a wide range of additional support needs which make an alternative site unsuitable.
“We are eager to share all these perspectives in full as part of an appropriate consultation process which this major community decision merits.
“I am very concerned on behalf of the school community and we as the parent council feel strongly that SRT must both investigate and share all possible alternative cost-saving and funding options as an alternative to closure.”
Meanwhile Scalloway Community Council, which convened for a scheduled meeting on Monday, is seeking the options appraisal and financial analysis that resulted in the pool being identified for closure.
The community council’s chair Lawson Bisset said: “We fully recognise that swimming pools and leisure centres across Shetland are subsidised and that difficult decisions are being faced.
“However, we are deeply concerned that Scalloway appears to have been identified as ‘low-hanging fruit’ primarily because of its proximity to Lerwick, rather than on the basis of a robust assessment of demand, educational use, and wider social value.
“We are seeking transparency from Shetland Recreational Trust on the options appraisal and impact assessment that underpins this proposal, including the financial assumptions, capacity implications elsewhere, and the potential impact on school swimming.
“Until that information is available, we do not believe the case for closure has been properly made.”
It also said it is keen to hear from other community councils, schools and stakeholder groups who may wish to share their views or become involved in any next steps.
Depending on the information received from SRT, the community council anticipates that a public meeting may be convened to allow wider community discussion.
In parallel, local resident Yvonne Clark is exploring the formation of an independent action group to campaign against the closure and to bring together affected users, families and organisations.
Explaining the decision taken by trustees, SRT chief executive Robert Geddes said last week that the organisation – which receives core funding from Shetland Charitable Trust – has been under financial pressure for many years.
The SRT said that even if “massively increased funding became available”, the trust would still have “unsustainable staffing challenges”.
“We have worked extremely hard over the past couple of years, making changes to our structure and operations to deliver the same level of service for the foreseeable future,” Geddes said.
“Using all the data available to us to ensure future provision of facilities, trustees are clear this is the most appropriate way forward to achieve that goal.
“I’d like to assure customers of our Scalloway Pool that all services, including swimming lessons, will be transferred to other SRT sites with as little disruption as possible.”
The SRT said closing Scalloway “will have the least community impact due to the proximity to the nearby available sites, which have capacity to absorb the customer numbers”.
More information on the SRT’s decision can be found in FAQs posted on the organisation’s website.
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