'Insolvent' Jedburgh pool had smallest deficit in Borders

EXCLUSIVE by OUR LOCAL GOVERNMENT EDITOR

The financial losses suffered by six swimming facilities managed by the Live Borders trust are considerably larger than the deficits which helped councillors to pull the plug on Jedburgh's Laidlaw Memorial Pool (LMP) and force its closure.

Figures from a reliable source passed on to Not Just Sheep & Rugby reveal that the Live Borders centres with pools in Eyemouth, Kelso, Galashiels, Selkirk, Hawick and Peebles had a combined shortfall of £1.319 million in 2023/24, a 25% increase in their operating deficit of £1.059 million during the previous financial year.

Hawick's Teviotdale Leisure Centre lost £547,434 last year while the smallest deficit of the six Live Borders facilities was the £69,004 racked up by Galashiels Swimming Pool.

Meanwhile, draft accounts for Jedburgh Leisure Facilities Trust [JLFT] which now faces liquidation show the LMP registered a 2023/24 loss of £30,517.

Members of Scottish Borders Council last month voted by 26 votes to four to reject a request from JLFT for an additional £80,000 to keep the Jedburgh pool open until the end of the current financial year. Both trusts have already had to be bailed out after running into financial difficulties

It is not clear whether the councillors had the figures for the Live Borders pools in front of them when they took their decision. Now, Jedburgh is left without swimming facilities with its pool mothballed pending a review of all Borders pools which could result in all of the centres being taken back under local authority control.

The council was told the Jedburgh trust currently had around £20,000 available in the bank and an immediate wages bill of £20,000 due on December 1st. In addition, the trust had current debts of £55,000. Without immediate financial support, JLFT would cease to trade. 

"The trust is no longer in a position where it is financially viable without the sourcing of further additional funding.", according to a report by council director of finance Suzy Douglas. "The Council has already provided substantial financial support in the form of Capital and Revenue grants."

A governance review had highlighted areas of weakness within JLFT’s governance which contributed to JLFT’s financial position. 

Our source has compiled their own version of events which led to the devastating decision to close the pool, at least temporarily.

They explained that LMP initially received a management fee of £137,000 from the council to be increased annually by inflation. But, in fact, the figure has gone down, not up, over the years to £115,000. The trust had saved SBC about £200,000 a year when it took over the running of the pool in Jedburgh.

We were told: "It’s been going well in the intervening 21years, increasing the number of users by 300 per cent and investing about £750,000 over the years to improve the facility through external grant applications from various sources such as EU Leader.

“It managed to survive COVID though many pools throughout the country didn’t.  It did receive a one-off grant of £127,000 from SBC for energy saving measures, used mainly to replace the 40-year-old inefficient and unreliable gas boilers."

But it is claimed the trust's ability to continue was jeopardised two years ago when energy costs increased by £60,000 a year, although it managed to cope until earlier this year.

 JLFT told SBC in August it was close to insolvency and a paper was prepared for councillors to consider.

According to our source: "The pool received the quarterly management fee in advance and £40,000 from SBC’s reserve. The conditions were that South of Scotland Enterprise (SOSE) would advise Trustees on improving their finances and governance, and that JLFT should do Debt Consolidation.

"JLFT found out a few days before the November Council meeting that SOSE had proposed reducing opening hours to just one shift of  seven hours a day opening and a grant of £80,000. That had previously been discussed as a possibility of reduced hours, among other possibilities, but it was obvious Council would never agree to that proposal”.

The opinions of the LMP users, many of them from outwith Jedburgh, was that ”it’s the best pool in the Borders and any suggestion that it was badly managed doesn’t fit the facts and is meant to divert attention from Live Borders record." 

These are the financial figures we were given:

2022/23

Eyemouth Leisure Centre: income 242,089; costs £436,589; deficit £194,500.  

Kelso Swimming Pool: income £260,432; costs £390,265; deficit £129,833.

Galashiels Swimming Pool: income £341,502; costs £453,513; deficit £112,012.

Selkirk Leisure Centre: income £127,986; costs £266,294; deficit £138,310.

Teviotdale Leisure Centre: income £617,517; costs £940,856; deficit £323,339.

Peebles Swimming Pool: income £84,198; costs £245,589; deficit £161,392.

Jedburgh LMP: income £432,696; costs £489,243; deficit £54,547.

2023/24

Eyemouth Leisure Centre: income £177,483; costs £442,689; deficit £265,206.

Kelso Swimming Pool: income £296,807; costs £449,373; deficit £152,566.

Galashiels Swimming Pool: income £402,765; costs £471,769; deficit £69,004.

Selkirk Leisure Centre: income £166,804; costs £258,640; deficit £91,836.

Teviotdale Leisure Centre: income £575,415; costs £1,122,849; deficit £547,434.

Peebles Swimming Pool: income £195,716; costs £389,661; deficit £193,945.

Jedburgh LMP: income £459,392; costs £489,909; deficit £30,517.