Save The Sovereign Centre protest on February 1 2025 in Eastbourne, East Sussex

SussexWorld

Read more at https://www.sussexexpress.co.uk/news/politics/council/council-negotiating-agreement-with-new-potential-tenant-to-protect-sovereign-centre-in-eastbourne-4962725

Transcript

00:00So today we're coming to all come together partially to celebrate the fact that we've

00:07got this far but also to say that we still need more from the council. We have a few

00:14months ago had this amazing centre where we could have all these pools open and now we're

00:20at the point where we may not have the fun pool all year round. The fun pool isn't just

00:25a fun pool, the fun pool is for people who have accessibility issues and who use that

00:31pool for their own health and exercise because they can't use the other pools. So being closed

00:36half the year isn't any good for them. I feel like it's been rushed. I have a lot of questions

00:41about why it took the council this long to actually listen to the public and then rush

00:46through a tender process which I don't think this really counts as a tender process if

00:51I'm honest. It was very very quick. I don't know enough myself but it doesn't feel like

00:59it could have been a thorough process in this short space of time. I really hope that GLL

01:04can do really great things for the centre because it's so loved by the people in the

01:08town. I just hope that it is the right decision for the people in the town. I ask if there

01:14were any other offers that could have kept all of the pools open all year round and if

01:21there were, why they didn't take those offers up and I also wonder why it took this much

01:30public pressure for them to consider doing a tender process in the first place. In the

01:34words of Edmund Burke, our representatives work for us. We rely on their good judgement.

01:43We rely on their representation, we also rely on their good judgement and they will rue

01:48the day when the last swimming pool for a town of 90,000 people cannot provide swimming

01:56facilities for the children of this town. Save our pool!

02:01So I'm Josh Fabarindi, Eastbourne's MP. I learnt to swim in the Sovereign Centre. I learnt to swim in the

02:07training pool and then my friends and I would hang out in the fun pool. I think that we've got a plan

02:14for the immediate term that the council has announced for an operator to come in and keep

02:18the training pool open and to get our fun pool reopened. I want things to go even further. I

02:26know our community does and in fact I know the council does as well in terms of a long-term plan

02:31for our Sovereign Centre and so I'll be working with all of them but also with the government to

02:36try and unlock the funding to help invest in swimming in Eastbourne and in the Sovereign

02:42Centre for the long term. From now on we want to keep that pressure up until we know that we have

02:46got the absolute best that we can for the centre. We want to know that it's secured for the long term.

02:52Three years is three years. It's not for the future generations at three years. We need it for

02:59for my children's children. We need this centre to last. We don't want a three-year lease. We

03:05need something that's going to keep the pool alive and we need it to keep all the pools open all the

03:10time for the people that really really do need those pools.

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