The owners of the Elite School of Swimming, which has operated from Gurnard Pines for the last eight years, say the future of the school is still in the balance.
At the end of January it was announced that the leaseholder of the sports complex had gone into liquidation, but that the landlord hoped the gym and swimming pool could reopen by March.
Offered the lease
Melissa and Paul from Elite School of Swimming wrote to their customers over the weekend setting out the current situation.
They explained that the Landlord (GUPI Properties Ltd), has asked whether Elite School of Swimming would like to take over the swimming pool operation and its entire running costs.
Melissa said,
“We have carefully looked into the running costs together with repairs and maintenance required and have concluded that with deep regret, this is not a business proposition we can enter into and make work.
“From April this year the Government is scaling back its Energy Support Scheme and the Leisure sector is set to lose out. This will mean that from April, energy costs for running the pool will double from their already extremely high levels.”
Spiralling energy costs
They went on to explain that Swim England, the Local Government Association and other leading organisations are lobbying the Government to try and get swimming pools reclassified as ‘energy intensive’ – like Museums and Libraries, so that they qualify for a higher level of discount on their energy prices.
However, until that is resolved, it would leave Elite School of Swimming responsible for spiralling energy costs, something they say is unsustainable.
Memberships
In addition to the issue of the energy costs, the company say that when the previous leaseholder’s company went into liquidation, all Swim and Gym Memberships were cancelled,
“So as things stand, the pool at Gurnard currently has no swim members.”
Any company taking on the pool operation would be reliant on swim members returning and agreeing to a new membership, as there is no membership list to work from.
Elite: Gutted and completely devastated
Melissa and Paul say they’ll explore continuing their lessons at other venues and will inform customers once they have more secure plans.
“We are completely devastated that we cannot continue the lessons, and very sad that for the time being our thriving business has to be put on hold for reasons outside of our control.
“Both ourselves and all our teachers are absolutely gutted that we will not be seeing all the children’s smiling faces and having so much fun in the water whilst learning such a valuable life skill that they will benefit from throughout their lives.
“We would like to thank you so much for your continuous support over the years, both in good times and especially during the hard times through the Pandemic. Without you we would not have been able to build such a successful business for ourselves and provide such a vital service to the local community.”
Melissa has recorded this thank you message to customers for their support over the last eight years.
