Sawbridgeworth high and dry as Leventhorpe pool and gym set to close
Leventhorpe Leisure Centre in Sawbridgeworth is to close on Sunday December 22.
The shock decision to shut the pool and gym was confirmed by the Cambridge Road secondary school’s head Malcolm White on Thursday (October 24).
He said that because of a change to a central government funding formula, the annual grant the school received from the Department for Education (DfE) to subsidise the pool was being withdrawn.
He said the pool already operated at an annual loss and the school was not allowed to use core funding for the education of its students to subsidise a community facility.
Mr White said the grant was “significant” and had enabled the pool to remain operational.
The school has a joint use agreement with East Herts Council, which contracts Everyone Active to operate the pool and gym for residents. Fanshawes Pool in Ware is also closing.
The school has been working with the district council, Sawbridgeworth Town Council, education authority Hertfordshire County Council and MP Josh Dean to find other funding.
The politician’s Hertford and Stortford constituency predecessor, Conservative Julie Marson, also attempted to find a solution.
Yesterday, Mr Dean submitted a written question to Janet Daby, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families.
He asked: “What financial support is available for school-owned leisure centres that have had departmental funding removed following changes to the Educational and Skills Funding Agency?”
She responded: “In previous years, some local authorities have applied to the department to request approval to allocate additional funding for schools with leisure facilities, as ‘exceptional circumstances’ funding, within their local funding formulae.
“The department is not yet in a position to confirm how ‘exceptional circumstances’ funding will operate for 2025-26 but will do so in due course.”
Mr White said that if the MP’s efforts to get the Department for Education or the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to allocate funds were successful, the closure decision would be reversed.
The head said: “We are very aware that the pool is a valued community asset. It is used by local primary schools and various members of the community for swimming lessons and as a leisure and fitness facility.
“I know that this decision will be greeted with sadness in our local community and the closure will affect all users.
“The benefits of the pool are obvious, and we are very disappointed that we find ourselves in this position. It is a decision we are forced to make given the withdrawal of the annual grant from the Department for Education.”
The school has notified parents, and Everyone Active has contacted existing users to inform them.
In December last year, East Herts Council closed Buntingford’s Ward Freman swimming pool because it could not afford to repair it.
With Fanshawes Pool in Ware also closing, it means the district will have lost three of its five public pools, leaving Grange Paddocks in Bishop’s Stortford and Hartham in Hertford.