Community / Petition launched in bid to ‘save Scalloway pool’
A PETITION has now been launched in a bid to halt the closure of the Scalloway swimming pool.
Yvonne Clark has petition sheets in shops and businesses in the village as well as the surrounding areas, while she has a table in the Toll Clock Shopping Centre in Lerwick today (Saturday) from 12pm to 2pm to collect more signatures.
The former PE teacher said she has had “very positive responses from everyone so far”.
The petition, called ‘Save Scalloway Pool’, calls on operator Shetland Recreational Trust (SRT) to reverse its decision to shut the building at the end of March.
“This would allow time for meaningful consultation to take place, and time to seek sustainable funding solutions from the Shetland Charitable Trust and other funding sources,” it adds.
Outside of Scalloway it can be found at the Lerwick and Bixter vets and the shops in Hamnavoe, Whiteness, Weisdale and Aith.
Services will move to other pools, and all stuff currently employed in Scalloway will be supported and given the opportunity to relocate to other SRT sites.
Its 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.
But 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”.
Trust chairman David Thomson said “trustees would rather not to have had to take this decision, but it is a key part of developing a sustainable future and for the SRT to avoid significant negative consequences for the trust and Shetland”.
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