Swimming pool at Rye Sports Centre needs targeted financial support to reopen

On Monday (November 28), Rother District Council’s overview and scrutiny committee received a verbal update on the situation facing the swimming pool at Rye Sports Centre, following its closure on November 1 as a result of rising energy bills.

While the closure is set to be reviewed in time for a March reopening, the committee was warned that if energy prices did not fall significantly, then financial support would be needed to make the pool viable.

The warning came from Ivan Horsfall-Turner, CEO of Freedom Leisure — a not-for-profit trust which runs the centre on behalf of the council.

He said the support would ideally come in the form of the government recognising providers like Freedom Leisure as a ‘vulnerable sector’ which need extra help. He called on councillors to join lobbying efforts to make this case.

Even then, he said, Freedom Leisure may need direct revenue support from the council to ensure the pool can reopen.

He said: “I recognise all of the challenges, but to open that pool I do think it is going to need some public subsidy. We’re going to have to move to a position of accepting that we’ve got a facility in a relatively small community.

“To be able to deliver that service it needs some subsidy, whether that is subsidy from Rother District Council [or] Rye Town Council it is almost inevitably going to need some subsidy.

“It certainly will if there is no government support, otherwise there is just no way it will open.”

Given pressures on local government budgets, direct subsidy is likely to be a difficult ask for the leisure trust, however. In September, Rother District Council had declined to provide additional funding to Freedom Leisure to help with rising energy costs.

Mr Horsfall-Turner warned this would likely not be a sustainable position when it comes time to re-negotiate the Rye Sports Centre contract in 2026, saying any operator would need to make changes to make the facility viable with the way things stand.

He said closing the pool over winter is expected to save around £12,000 per month, but even then Freedom Leisure still expects to lose around £80,000 at Rye Sports Centre in 2022/23.