Protestors held a demonstration recently following the news that Freedom Leisure, which manages Rye Sports Centre in partnership with Rother District Council, announced the temporary closure of the pool at the centre from November 1.
Hastings and Rye MP Sally-Ann Hart joined protestors at the demonstration on Saturday (October 22).
On Twitter, she said: “I joined the public meeting at Rye Leisure Centre to show my support for keeping the pool open this winter.
“I've also met with Freedom Leisure’s CEO to raise the concerns of residents and I will continue to make the case for keeping it open for local people.”
Andi Rivett, mayor of Rye, who was at Saturday’s event, said: “While I am sure the council and Freedom Leisure are aware that there is great sadness at its potential loss, I am not sure that they know the full extent of the impact this will have on our town.
"We have thus far heard how people, who have suffered considerable mental and physical ill-health have benefited from swimming, how such exercise has reduced their medication, made them feel so much better and alive, and is an opportunity to meet others and enjoy socialising in what is otherwise a very lonely world for them.
“I think it has come as a massive surprise to everyone. No one here saw this coming. And it has happened so quickly. There has been no time for consultation and we haven’t had time to put forward potential solutions.
“It is also too great a sacrifice for the hundreds of school children who use the pool weekly. Learning to swim is rightly a compulsory subject. We do not want to see children’s lives put at risk if they try to swim in dirty rivers or out at sea unsupervised.
“There is lip service that this may be a temporary closure but we all know for a fact, once a pool is closed down it is prohibitively expensive to bring it back into operation.”
Freedom Leisure said the gym and other sports facilities at the centre will remain open but added it made the decision to close the swimming pool due to escalating energy costs.
The pool will close over the winter and the decision will be reviewed again in the spring, the company said.
This review will be dependent on whether there is significant improvement in the wholesale price of energy or further government support, it added.
Freedom Leisure said it has recently seen its annual energy bill move from £8m to £20m and this is despite the recent government announcement outlining the short-term support available for businesses.
After the closure was announced, Ivan Horsfall Turner, Freedom Leisure’s CEO, said: “We are frankly devastated that it has come to this and that the people of Rother will be without this vital community facility. Operating and maintaining swimming pools is a large proportion of our overall energy costs. As a not-for-profit leisure trust we operate at very low surpluses and these increases simply cannot be absorbed by Freedom Leisure.”
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Young protestors calling for the pool at Rye Sports Centre to remain open. Picture by Kt Bruce Photo: Kt Bruce
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Protestors calling for the pool at Rye Sports Centre to remain open. Picture by Kt Bruce Photo: Kt Bruce
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Protestors calling for the pool at Rye Sports Centre to remain open. Picture by Kt Bruce Photo: Kt Bruce
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Hastings and Rye MP, Sally-Ann Hart and Rye mayor Andi Rivett with protestors calling for the pool at Rye Sports Centre to remain open. Picture by Kt Bruce Photo: Kt Bruce