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Govanhill Baths Community Trust |
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Letter Property Sub-Group of Development and Regeneration Services (DRS) On Friday February 25th the City Council (DRS) posted an agenda item about its plans for the baths as a media release and on its web site. In spite of the extremely short notice the Board felt it was sufficently important to write to all members of that committee and the the Director of DRS about the release. Our letter (download here) was delivered by hand on Tuesday March 1st to the committee members the councillors and to the Director of DRS. It was also sent electronically. Members of the Board attended the meeting as observers.
The Council's Media Release
From Amine Harrington
COUNCIL SET TO CARRY OUT FRESH MARKETING EXERCISE FOR FORMER GOVANHILL POOL
Glasgow City Council is next week expected to approve proposals that will seek to establish if there is any market interest in the former Govanhill swimming pool.
A report is going before the members of the Development and Regeneration Services (Property) Sub-Committee on 2 March, 2005.
The Council declared the B-listed property as surplus to requirements in June 2004, and officials have held discussions with the locally-based Dixon Community to see if there was any potential in adapting the building for community use. The Dixon Community have now indicated that they are no longer interested in pursuing an adaptation of the building.
There will now be a new study into the feasibility of re-using the building, including further costings associated with any possible conversions, followed by a new marketing exercise for the building.
The marketing exercise intends to establish if there is any potential market interest in the pool building, and if so, to determine whether any potential applicant has the financial means to upgrade and invest in the property with a view to its continued use.
If the marketing exercise fails to obtain a suitable purchaser, the Council, in consultation with Historic Scotland, will examine all potential options for the building.
Councillor Anne Marie Millar, the local councillor for Govanhill said:-
“While I’m disappointed that the discussions with the Dixon Community have ended for the time being, I am pleased that fresh efforts are going to be made to establish the level of interest in the former pool. I hope it won’t be too long before a serious and viable proposal for this building comes forward for consideration.”
The Sub Group Committee discussed the issue for 4 minutes and to approved the recommendation as set out in the media release anda tabled report. The chair noted also that a "community group" (not a Charitable Trust as is the case) had written to everyone expressing an interest though the Director of DRS said he knew of a letter but had not read it before the meeting.
Amongst other points our letter makes the following request:
"We
noted that in June 2004, the Council decided to allow a full investigation of
the Dixon Community Trust's interest in the Baths to the exclusion of anyone
else. We would request that your committee, before opening the Baths to
tender, considers offering the Trust the immediate opportunity to demonstrate
that its plans are feasible and viable and to grant a period of at least six
months to do so". We did this because as raised in the last UPDATE there appears to be:
(a) no published explanation or reasoning as to why the Council, in June 2004, chose to give a particular preference to an inquiry into the feasibility of the Dixon Community Trust's interest in the baths (which clearly meant demolition and rebuilding).
(b) Since the Dixon community interest no longer existed we saw no reason why another, highly visible, active and committed Community Trust like our own should not be given a similar opportunity.
(c) We are concerned that the council is able to choose options of its own without any recourse to community consultation even though it is committed under legislation to involving communities in decision making under its Community Development Planning Initiative.
The request we made was ignored by all members present.
Readers can make their own minds up about the present position, however they may care to note the comment from Councillor Millar who states that the Dixon Community interst has ended "for the time being". The council's position in its report nor in its press release does not say this.
Funding Offer from John Dickie and Moore, Builders
The Evening Times article at: http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/hi/news/5036165.html also discussed in our letter to the DRS Committee accurately sums up the position over the potential donation of funds to the Trust. Once again, it is in the gift of the council to decide where such a donation goes. We believe that such decisions and their rationale should be transparent and made in association and collaboration with relevant and interested community groups or parties.
We are most grateful to John Dickie and Moore for his clear support for a project of the sort we propose. It is self evident that a project can be of benefit to many thousands of people annually and quite clearly with so much political and public backing has great merit and the arguments against such a venture at the very least will need to be evidenced and spelt out most carefully. One small point of interest - when Govanhill Baths closed, the "official" figure recorded some 70000 entrances recorded in the final year. We believe with good evidence the real figure was in fact very much greater than this since the recording machines were frequently inoperative.
The Trust's Formal Bid For The Baths A report in the February Southsider seemed to indicate that the Trust had not formally expressed an interest in gaining possession of the Baths. The Trust did in fact make a formal request on 11th August 2004 which was acknowledged and this is shown on theLetters page. We have subsequently written to Mr. Steve Inch, the new Head of Development and Regeneration Services (DRS) seeking formally access to the Baths in order to get ahead with allowing our architect to complete drawings and commission a full community based feasibility study for the new (three pooled) Healthy Living Centre at Govanhill Baths. The Board has also sought a meeting with him to discuss our plans. Historic Scotland publishes statement Historic Scotland has now published the details of its "Statement of Significance" on its web site: www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/govanhillbaths where its key findings are shown here. They read extremely positively. However, it concludes, we think ambiguously that: "... any proposed re - use of Govanhill Baths must take into account more than simply the presence of a façade: the spaces given over to the pools are of importance and their re-use must be considered extremely carefully” Now, we know that DRS has been having what Mr. Frank Sheridan has been telling the Board is “informal” meetings with Historic Scotland. We are not party to these meetings and we do not know what is being discussed or why. Nor do we know whether DRS is exploring the limits of what might be possible as far as Historic Scotland is concerned – that is to say, what would be possible for the buildings if they were not retained for swimming and healthy living. It is our belief that such discussions should be transparent and everyone has a right to know precisely what is happening at these meetings and why.
Meeting with Elected Members
On Saturday 12th February representatives of the Trust’s Board met with local Councillors Anne- Marie Miller, Malcolm Cunning, MP Mohammad Sarwar (Prospective Labour MP for the Glasgow Constituency, MSP Frank McAveety (Shettleston) at the Taleem Trust, Network House Govanhill. The meeting was chaired by Mohammad Sarwar.
Alan Pert the Trust’s architect from NORD Glasgow made a presentation similar to that made at the Community meeting on 25th January.
A critical aspect of the meeting was gaining immediate access to the Baths.
After a positive and informative discussion about the plans the Trust has for a Healthy Living Centre incorporating all three pools the elected members concluded that, “it was not an unreasonable request”for the Trust to have access to the Baths and it should write immediately to the Council’s Director of Development and Regeneration Services seeking such access.
Access will enable our architect to begin drawing up accurate plans and will enable the Trust to begin seeking funding for a full feasibility study in relation to the outline plans and ideas we have developed in collaboration with Alan Pert.
Gaining access to the baths is an enormous step forward since to date our architect had worked from drawings and photographs and we could not bid for funding without having access.
We are grateful to MP Sarwar for arranging the meeting and for the positive response from the elected members present. |
