Question reference: S6W-16561
- Date lodged: 31 March 2023
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Current status: Answered by Maree Todd on 21 April 2023
Question
To ask the Scottish Government when it last met with (a) COSLA and (b) individual local authorities to discuss the viability of public swimming pools, in light of reported cost and funding pressures.
Answer
The Scottish Government places great importance on leisure facilities and believes everyone should have access to these services.
We are fully aware of the issues facing many sports facilities, particularly swimming pools, and the specific issue of energy costs has been raised with us.
Maree Todd MSP, Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport has met with Community Leisure UK on a number of occasions to discuss the challenges and will also raise the issues facing public leisure facilities when she meets with COSLA shortly.
sport scotland, our nation agency for sport, continues to hold regular and ongoing discussions with its partners, including local authorities, COSLA, and Scottish Swimming (the sport’s governing body), to discuss the challenges facing the sporting sector.
sport scotland are supporting Scottish Swimming to deliver a Scottish Swimming Facilities Project. Scottish Swimming recently appointed a contractor to undertake the detailed piece of work to understand accurately the current pool provision, life cycle and predict the landscape in the short, medium, and long term. Conclusions are expected by July 2023.
In addition COSLA are member of the Active Scotland Delivery Group which considers how Scotland can become a more active nation and how we can collaboratively address the challenges we face.