Mid Argyll Pool features, feebly, in The Herald
published this on 12:00 pm, Saturday, 2nd January, 2010Business| Community News| Local Government| Newspapers| Sporting Activities | Comments (rss) | Respond | Ping |
At least it’s the oxygen of publicity but you do despair of complacent journalism in the national media. Today’s Herald carries a piece at the foot of Page 12: ‘Campaigners in fight to save local swimming pool in Lochgilphead’.
It raises awareness that there is an issue but it is a lazy piece relying on superficial and uninterrogated easily available facts. There is no analysis, no drilling down into the ‘facts’, no research which would have thrown up some far more interesting perspectives. They could have borrowed all of this, uncredited, from pieces we have published and we wouldn’t have complained. They’ve done it before.
Most of all, at no point does ithis article actually nail the core issue – of funding parity with Argyll’s other community owned pool, on Islay; and of the principle of equitable public sector support for facilities supporting cross-generational health and safety in the community.
Neither side in the dispute will be happy with the Herald;s coverage – and this does not imply that it is a fairly balanced piece – except that it represents both cases equally badly.
Argyll and Bute Council will be aggrieved that, yet again, it is being hung with financial ‘comparisons’ that make the inequity of its funding for the Mid Argyll Pool even more obviously wrong than they already are. You cannot reasonably compare funding given for large muti-functional sports and leisure facilities with funding given for a smaller pool and gym facility.
But you can certainly compare the relative funding given to each of Argyll’s two community owned pools, which makes the position very plain in the Council’s discrimination against the Mid Argyll pool.
And you can distil a common basis for calculation of funding support across all of Argyll pools, whether or not they are part of a multipurpose provision. . We are currently working on this.
The Council will rightly be aggrieved at the inaccurate picture presented by The Herald in its global financial comparisons.
The new Board of the Mid Argyll pool, to whom we awarded the first special For Argyll Award for its signal contribution to Argyll, will be equally miffed.
The piece made no reference to the Board’s very significant achievements, in six months, in stabilising the situation at the pool; nor did it mention the massively successful public demonstration in Lochgilphead on 19th December to save the pool.
It left unchallenged the Council’s bland and eminently challengeable statement that it continues to provide significant support for the pool.
It was hierarchical in its mention of politicians involved, mentioning only Argyll and Bute’s MSP and MP and failing to note what, to date, has been the strongest contribution to the campaign – from Highlands and Islands ‘list’ MSP, Jamie McGrigor. He happens to be an Argyll man. He has been involved energetically with the pool Board for some time and he has been working on an individual effort to attract funding from business.
Jim Mather, Argyll’s MSP, had arranged a meeting with the Mid Argyll Pool Board before Christmas but the demands on the volunteer members time at that stage was such that it had to be postponed.
Mt Mather is now holding a meeting in Lochgilphead on 15th January, with the Board of the Pool, the Council, the NHS (whose local staff absolutely increased funding for the pool), the Community Planning Partnership and users of the pool and gym – other sports cubs and individuals. We’ll be interested to see who turns up.
in the end, though, in this piece – ‘Nul points’ to The Herald. Must do better.
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January 2nd, 2010 at 7:42 pm
Jamie MacGrigor is a nice wee chap and very hard to dislike. However the idea of him working very hard and efficiently at anything is a fairly novel concept. Ask some of Argyll’s Tories.
This late conversion to high powered political action may of course explain why his parliamentary expenses have shot up to about twice Jim Mather’s (who actually runs a full time fully staffed office in Argyll out of his).
January 2nd, 2010 at 8:56 pm
Jamie MacGrigor is a very likeable guy indeed but he’s in the wrong party. Any assistance towards the baths situation is to be welcomed and the Herald taking notice is a good step forward.
January 3rd, 2010 at 10:12 am
I did read the piece, but it seemed to be a re-hash of what has been said here with a bit more added. At the very lease David Ross could of given credit for were he got the story from.
January 4th, 2010 at 11:14 am
I am very much in sympathy with the Lochgilphead Swimming Pool. Having been a founder and former board member of Islay and Jura Community Enterprises I know at first hand the difficulties of running a community own pool.
However, any setting up one community pool against another, however unintended, will inevitably be counter productive. In this we have to hang together as the funding allocated to both pools is inadequate for their needs.
In 2000 when I was a Board member of I&JCE we saw problems ahead and went to the Council with an undertaking to raise a Trust fund of £300,000 with the interest going to help offset the Pool deficit if the Council raised the annual subsidy. It took a tremendous community effort but by 2004 the money was raised and from 2005 onwards Islay and Jura Community Enterprise Trust has contributed to the pool revenue costs. In addition the I&JCE Board allocated time for the pool manager to search for project funding for particular activities.
The Council kept to their part of the bargain and increased the subsidy, not as much as we’d have liked, but any increase is a bonus. However, all such arrangements are now classed as ‘service agreements’ and have to be re-negotiated every three years, which makes 2010 another crunch time for the Islay pool. With rising costs and the effects of the recession our Trust fund is also struggling to maintain the level of contribution the pool requires.
In both Islay and Lochgilphead volunteers are providing the buildings and staff for a vital service that benefits health and the local economy. Both pools need adequate support from the local authority. It’s not a case of comparing Lochgilphead with Islay but having the communities support each other to make the case for both to be better funded.
Catriona Bell, Chairperson Islay & Jura Community Enterprises Trust.
January 4th, 2010 at 3:42 pm
Well said and a useful and constructive contribution. There is obviously an opportunity for those running the pool in Mid Argyll to come up with a robust plan of action which will persuade the Council to provide the assistance required. The Council is in no position to countenance largesse with public money unless it is persuaded that what it is about to support is viable and in the public interest.
January 4th, 2010 at 8:53 pm
We couldn’t agree more, Catriona, that the point is to make common cause and work together. We have an enormous respect for the energies on Islay and the community’s efforts for its pool are very typical.