Birtley Community Pool Newsletter

Birtley Community Pool Newsletter – July 2024

Work at the pool is progressing to plan for a September reopening

Work started at the pool on 3rd June as Quora, a well-established local engineering business, commenced work on replacing the existing boilers, water heater, storage tanks and ancillary assets at the pool with new, more efficient and reliable equipment. By the end of June most of the new assets have been installed, the system is full of water and the upgrade to the building management system has also been done.

Last week, another local business called McClaughlin Groundworks resurfaced the middle section of the car park and applied new lines on the car park bays.

Further work is planned in July to install new signage, security doors and mesh grills on the windows, WiFi and Broadband. Work will also begin to replace the existing interior lighting with more energy efficient LED lighting. In August the water slide will be repaired and refurbished ready for us opening.

Fundraising update

During June we received a donation of £3,000 from the Barbour Foundation and £100 from a local Indian restaurant, Jewel in the Crown. Many thanks for these generous donations. We have also submitted funding applications to the National Community Lottery Fund, Moto and Arnold Clark.

We have deferred the launch of our Crowdfunding application as we wait to hear from Sport England on their contribution to our Campaign.

Recruitment progress

We have appointed our Senior Operations Manager who started with us on 8th July.

Our 2 Duty Managers have been appointed and will start with us at the beginning of August. Both come with experience in the leisure sector and will be an asset to the team.

Our Business Support Officer will be starting on 22nd July. They have an excellent background in IT and customer facing roles; they will be a significant help to us as we look to open the centre and ramp up our publicity.

Finally, we have appointed 7 leisure attendants whose start dates are to be confirmed and will be covering shifts on a part time and casual basis. We will be advertising again shortly for the full time leisure attendants roles within the centre.

Drop-in sessions during 2024 at Birtley Library

We continue to hold our monthly drop-in sessions at Birtley Library from 10.30am-12pm this is your opportunity to call in and speak with some of the trustees who will be available to answer questions and listen to any ideas you may have about the pool. You don’t need to stay for the full hour and a half, it’s fine to just drop in for a few minutes on any of the following Saturday mornings:

Saturday 13th July

Saturday 10th August

If you would like to contact us with your ideas or questions, please email us on: birtley.aquatic@gmail.com

On behalf of the Birtley Community Aquatic Centre CIO trustee board

Yvonne Probert: Chair Matthew Grant: Treasurer

Birtley Community Pool Newsletter

Hello everyone

The Asset transfer has taken place on May 31st

As agreed with Gateshead Council we have signed the 50 year lease so have completed the asset transfer. Birtley Community Aquatic Centre (BCAC) now have full responsibility for the Birtley Community Pool. The trustees now have a three-month period from the start of June to the end of August for all the planned capital work to be delivered, which will be managed by the BCAC trustees.

The capital work will include:

• Installing roller shutters on all entry points and mesh grills on some windows

• Resurfacing the middle section of the car park

• Replacing the existing boilers, water heater, storage tank and associated plant

• Replacing the existing lighting with more efficient LED lighting

• Repairing and refurbishing the water slide During this time we have had to close the car park to the public and we kindly request that no one parks at the swimming centre as we will be having contractors vehicles, resurfacing and ongoing works happening during this time.

Fundraising update

Although the asset transfer is complete, we continue to fundraise as we still need to raise an additional £75,000 to reopen the pool. To help us reach this target, we will be launching another Crowdfunding campaign during June, with a minimum target to raise £20,000.

We have started to ask local businesses and supporters to donate items that we can sell on the Crowdfunding page as rewards, as we did for the last Crowdfunding campaign in September 2023.

If you have anything you would like to donate please contact us by email to birtley.aquatic@gmail.com, marking your subject as crowdfunder donation please which will enable this email to be picked up by the correct person.

We are continuing to have discussions with several other charitable funders to obtain the remaining monies.

We are now very confident that we will raise the remaining £75,000 over the next few months, with the support of the community and the other funders. Recruitment has started for the Birtley Community Pool staff

We have started the recruitment process for the team of staff who will operate the building and look after the customers once we reopened to the public in September 2024. We have already successfully appointed the Senior Operations Manager and one of the Duty Managers.

We have also advertised the Leisure Attendant and Business Support Assistant roles.

We are aiming for some of the staff to start work at the pool during July to help us get ready for opening to the community in September, with the rest of the staff starting during August.

Drop-In Sessions during 2024 at the Birtley Library

We continue to hold our monthly drop-in sessions at the Birtley Library from 10.30 am until 12 noon this is your opportunity to call in and speak with some of the trustees who will be available to answer questions and listen to any ideas you may have about the pool.

You don’t need to stay for the full hour and a half, it’s fine to just drop in for a few minutes on any of the following Saturday mornings:

Saturday 8th June Saturday 13th July Saturday 10th August

If you would like to contact us with your ideas or questions, please email us on: birtley.aquatic@gmail.com

On behalf of the Birtley Community Aquatic Centre CIO trustee board

Yvonne Probert: Chair Matthew Grant: Treasurer