Peterborough City Council's cabinet decides to permanently close St George's Hydrotherapy Pool

Today Peterborough City’s Council’s Cabinet decided to permanently close St George’s Community Hydrotherapy Pool. You can view the decision here - https://youtu.be/q2Pen9tc9bM 32:20 - 1:14:50.

Here is a transcript of St George's Service Users' representation

It seems we have just three minutes to try to a save a successful, a well-evidenced, a well-used and a vital service that’s been transforming lives for past 10 years…

I asked the service users what I should say. They told me to refer you to our representation. Have you read it? To be honest, we do wonder.

Your cabinet report makes no mention of the health, the wellbeing, the pain relief and the pleasure, St George’s has delivered to thousands of your disabled residents.

Residents who have nowhere else to go to achieve this. Most users can’t go to the gym or the Lido. They needed and relied on St George’s to be physically active and self-manage their health.

Surely this should be something a responsible council should be encouraging. Not shutting it down. When we know this is not necessary, it feels discriminating and cruel.

Throughout your report there’s costs, costs that continue to change. Including a headline figure for the council re-opening the pool.

St George’s users only wanted the council to honour its agreement, as passed by Full Council, to sell the pool an aquatic physiotherapy specialist.

Please can we reiterate, as this seems to have been lost, this sale would have generated a profit for the council of 5-75k. All further financial responsibilities, including refurbishing and the running of the pool, including for the community’s use, would lie with the buyer – not the council.

This should be an absolute win-win. What a fabulous asset for the city. What excellent value for money. What is not to like?

And your report makes no mention of the costs of not opening to St George’s.

The loss of the over 1.5 million pounds of economic and social value that St George’s was delivering each year. Especially to Adult Social Care - the very service that is putting strain on council finances. This makes no sense.

And of course, one can’t put a price on the loss of users’ independence and health. Devastating does not do justice to some of the stories I’ve heard.

Your report now gives the need for Heltwate School to expand as the reason for closing. Turning a hydrotherapy pool into a classroom sounds an incredibly expensive and unfeasible use of local taxpayers’ money. Especially when the school may relocate and there are far simpler options for expansion. Ironically, taking the pool hall for a classroom would deprive those same special needs pupils at Heltwate, and across the city, of the very hydrotherapy pool that they need and may feature in their Education and Health Care plans.

Your report states that hydrotherapy alternatives are available. Please may we make it very clear that this is not the case.

Closing the hydro pool would be a most short-sighted and retrograde step. It would hurt some of the city’s most vulnerable residents; it will cost the council money and increase health inequalities. And at the very time the Integrated Care System is launched. It’s incomprehensible.

We call upon the Cabinet to do the right thing for Peterborough and its residents. Please delay this decision and take it to Full Council where it can properly and democratically be decided.