Is This The End Of Hurst Pool?
Hurst Pool : Update following July Cabinet
Hurst Pool - At Elmbridge Cabinet this week it was agreed to explore three feasibility options for Hurst Pool in Molesey.
The options to progress are:
1. Refurbish the existing facilities - no enhancements to the Hurst Pool and continue as is.
2. To adapt and extend existing facilities - provide enhanced facilities plus the opportunity for gyms, studio, splash pad and cafe.
3. Build a new swimming and health facility – beside the existing building so as not to close the pools temporarily, provide enhanced sport, leisure, and wellbeing activities internally and externally.
Hurst Pool is a high user of energy and water and any facility improvement would provide the opportunity to deliver an environmentally sustainable swimming pool/leisure facility, significantly reducing the carbon footprint of the facility with an aspiration to be carbon neutral.
Work will now progress to fully cost and assess these options before coming back to Elmbridge Cabinet later in the year.
No decision has been made on which of these options will be taken forward, and each needs fully exploring before coming to a balanced decision.
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As part of the Elmbridge Council Process, they will engage with residents and the local community who will have the opportunity to provide their views.
The report to Elmbridge Cabinet has included possible funding for these options, including the strategic community infrastructure levy, applying for Sport England capital funding and enabling development of up to potentially 116 homes on the site, alongside the new leisure facilities.
Aparently no decisions have been made.
Funding will be assessed in more detail as part of the feasibility study and brought back to Elmbridge Cabinet later in the year.
It has been suggested that a fourth option should be added, to close the site and encourage biodiversity on a green space instead.
However, the Leisure Facilities Strategy 2017-2035 identified that there will be an increased demand for swimming as a result of population growth through to 2035 and as such the community need suggests that the Hurst Pool should remain the valuable leisure site it is.
