Charity takes the plunge at Wirksworth Pool
- Friday, 27 July 2012 15:21
Wirksworth Swimming Pool is now in the hands of a new charitable company.
Derbyshire Dales District Council has transferred the 10m x 5m pool to trustees of Wirksworth Swimming Pool, ensuring it continues to provide swimming lessons and other water-based activities for people in the town and surrounding area.
Councillor Mrs Carol Walker, Chairman of the District Council's Communities Committee, praised the transfer. She said:
"This has been a tremendous success and a great example of the District Council handing over a local facility to a community group that is better able to invest in it.
"It was vital to the District Council not only to find so many people in the town who said the swimming pool was important to them, but to then find local people willing to form a new company and to take on the management of the facility.
"That was the complicated part, but the company has gone far in a short time, and, with the District and Town Councils' support, they are making a success of this new venture."
The transfer of the swimming pool moves the responsibility from the District Council, which managed the facility as a trust from when the pool was built in 1982 with funding from the old Wirksworth Urban District Council.
In 2000 the swimming pool was included in the management of the District Council's Wirksworth Leisure Centre.
To identify ways of creating investment funding, in 2010 a local consultation project identified significant support for the pool, prompting the District Council to work with local organisations to form a new charitable company to take on the responsibility.
David Baker, Chair of Trustees for Wirksworth Swimming Pool, said:
"Wirksworth Swimming Pool has been at the heart of the community for 30 years now. In that time, it has helped countless children learn to swim and adults of all ages and abilities to exercise.
"I know I can speak for my fellow trustees when I say we are all committed to making the pool a success, and early support from the community has been very encouraging."
