Deepings Leisure Centre campaigner buoyed by ‘positive’ meetings over swimming pool’s future

A swimming pool campaigner hopes things are progressing positively after a series of ‘very good’ meetings.

The fight to return a facility to the Deepings - which lost its leisure centre in 2021- appears to be picking up pace again after an action group appeared to fear their fight was all-but over earlier this year.

But South Kesteven District Council leader Ashley Baxter (Ind), who represents the Market and West Deeping ward, has been buoyed by a series of important meetings held recently.

Firstly, MP Sir John Hayes announced that he had secured a meeting with Government Minister for Sport, Media, Civil Society and Youth, Stephanie Peacock, regarding the future of the leisure centre, which was originally shut due to a leaking roof.

This was followed up by Coun Baxter and Coun Phil Dilks (Ind) - who represents the area of SKDC and Lincolnshire County Council - holding talks with the Anthem Trust, which operates the Deepings School, and had been tasked with demolishing the centre with county council cash initially set aside to help re-open the leisure centre.

Finally, Coun Baxter also enjoyed ‘positive’ talks with Lincolnshire County Council’s new executive for growth, Liam Kelly, who is part of the new ruling party.

“Last week was very good in terms of the Deepings pool for three reasons,” Coun Baxter said.

Elaborating on his discussions with the Anthem Trust, which was represented by interim chief executive David Moran and headteacher Kirstie Johnson, Coun Baxter said: “It was very encouraging.

“The interim chief executive appears to be quite community minded and mentioned getting leisure facilities up and running.

“To hear it said back to us was really positive.”

When attending county hall, Coun Baxter also managed to ‘collar’ Coun Liam Kelly (Reform), the county council’s executive member for growth.

Following Reform UK taking control of Lincolnshire County Council from the Conservatives, Coun Baxter is hoping the current leadership may be more sympathetic to his cause.

“I had a very positive discussion with him, and brought him up to date as he’s a new councillor and doesn’t know the long and tortuous history of the site,” Coun Baxter added.

“He also said they’ll try to make something work. They want it to work.

“The attitude of the previous Conservative administration was ‘we know we can spend money on it one way or the other so we can spend money knocking it down or spend money keeping it open’.

“I’m confident that, on the face of it, the new administration at county seem positive about doing what works for local residents.”

While there may be a renewed positivity about swimming facilities returning to the area, Coun Baxter is unsure what form a venue would take.

Last week Virginia Moran (Ind), chairperson of the Deepings Leisure Centre CIC, told this paper she feared too much damage would have been caused to the current site, and proposed a new purpose-built single-storey centre.

However, one thing is for sure, funding needs to be found.

This week the Government announced ‘renewal’ project cash was being made available in 350 communities, swimming pools among the facilities to be invested in.

However, there is no guarantee that these coffers would support the Deepings plans.

“I’m quite buoyant about the possibility [of getting a pool], but the bit that’s still missing is the £3m-£5m to get it open,” Coun Baxter said.

“Nobody seems sure at the minute whether the existing centre can be revamped in any way.

“It’s been empty for four years now, it might be beyond the point of no return. But in terms of an engineering structure, who knows?

“Ideally we want what’s affordable and we would work with all partners on this to make it work. And from the South Kesteven point of view, we definitely want to make it work.

“We’ve had glimmers of hope before. And, although we’ve been at it for five, years, it’s still early days.”

Despite Coun Baxter’s discussions, Lincolnshire County Council say its plans to demolish the current site have not changed.

Andrew Mclean, interim assistant director – corporate property, said: “Following extensive discussions with the interested parties, the council offered to lease the leisure centre site to the Anthem Trust earlier this year.

“This offer included up to £850,000 to demolish the existing leisure centre, which would allow the trust to explore options for building new sporting facilities.

“This offer remains on the table, and there are currently no plans to revisit this decision.”