Communication from PCC to St George's Service Users

This communication is being sent on behalf of Peterborough City Council:

Dear members of the St George’s Friends and Service Users’ group,

As you know, the council has recently announced that the St George's Hydrotherapy Pool will continue to be mothballed for the time being. We would like to take this opportunity to apologise to the Friends and Users for the way in which this information was announced.

Although we were negotiating to sell the pool to a private buyer, two important changes have impacted on that process:

• first, as part of the work we are doing to achieve long term financial sustainability, a review of the deal has determined that it does not represent best value for the council. The council is required to invest significantly in the pool to make changes to facilitate the sale, reducing any surplus after costs. Further however, and as you know, the pool is located on a site with Heltwate Special School, the whole site being owned by the council. We will need to make a decision soon about our plans for that whole site, and it is important that the whole space remains available at the point that decision needs to be made;
• second, demand for special school places has increased significantly recently, and Heltwate School is in desperate need of additional classroom space. Our statutory duty is to ensure all of our children have an appropriate school place, and we are therefore in discussion with the school to see what options there may be to extend into the space currently taken up by the pool.

We obviously appreciate the value of the pool to its users, having stepped in many years ago to prevent its closure, but regrettably the provision of hydrotherapy is not a core or statutory council service. We are having to make some difficult decisions and tough recommendations to balance our finances and protect our core statutory functions, and it is regrettable that the pool has been affected by this.

However, we are engaging positively with Dr Neil Modha, who has set out his plans for brand new hydrotherapy provision in Peterborough, and we would also urge you to engage with the NHS to suggest that they also review both the provision of and funding for hydrotherapy in Peterborough.

Finally, it is important to note that no final decision has yet been taken on the future of the pool. There will need to be a full report setting out all the options, and this is currently scheduled to be presented to a Full Council meeting on 23 May.

With our very best wishes.

Peterborough City Council