Petition grows over fears for cuts at Beacon Leisure Centre

The shock resignation of a Fife councillor from the board of the trust last week was sparked by proposals for further cuts to the Beacon Leisure Centre in Burntisland.

Neil Crooks felt that making any further cuts to the pool could mean it would no longer appeal to users and lead to its closure.

Now as a petition to stop any further cuts nears 5000 signatures, calls are being made for greater scrutiny of Fife Sport and Leisure Trust’s finances.

However, the trust said today that having more local people using facilities would send “a more powerful message than a petition”.

Bridget Fraser, chairman of Burntisland Amateur Swimming Club and Humane Society, started the petition last week, which has now had around 5000 names added.

She said: “The swimming club use the Beacon six times a week for both training in the water and land training. So we’re there a lot and we pay a lot of money for that, which is our biggest outgoing.

“I’ve raised concerns over the last few years like the cafeteria being removed, opening hours being shortened. It just feels like there’s not much interest in marketing the place and getting more people in.

“Even though we are big users of the pool, nobody from the trust has ever spoken to us about any problems.

“We raised the petition just to get the message out there and gather people’s thoughts and opinions, so the trust and the council know how strongly the community feels about it.

“To get 5000 signatures in a week just shows how much it matters to people.

“There are a lot of local people signing, but also people from Rosyth, Dunfermline, Lochgelly, and even Edinburgh, from people that come to Burntisland to use the pool because it is a leisure pool, with flumes and waves.

“It’s also really accessible, with the car park, lift, and sloping entry into the pool.

“People in Edinburgh have said they come to Burntisland specifically to use the pool because there isn’t one in Edinburgh anymore that has flumes and wave machines.

“For the swimming club it would just be devastating. We’ve been around since 1886, so we’ve been through this before, when the open-air pool was closed.

“When I was young we used to have to get bussed through to Kirkcaldy for training.

“We find that getting training time and water-time in the pools in Fife is very very difficult. We’ve seen other pools impacted up at Cupar, and Bowhill, even Carnegie has reduced hours so we have clubs in all of those towns that are looking for training time, so at the moment all the clubs in Fife struggle to get water-time that they need.

“For Burntisland we would find it very difficult if we lost the Beacon, because I just don’t think we could replace the watertime anywhere else.

Councillor Neil Crooks, whose resignation from the board sparked the row, said: “I think it is important that ownership of this campaign sits with the community in Burntisland.

“To that end I am delighted but not surprised to see the response to the petition raised by the local swimming club.

“At the end of the day all of us, including the trust board, want to achieve a stable environment for our leisure provision. I thought that had been achieved in April 2019 when Fife Council and FSLT agreed the three year deal. I look forward to having the position clarified and will continue to support efforts to ensure the Beacon has a long and fruitful life.

“The proposal put to Fife Council by the trust in early 2019 would have closed the Beacon.

“The agreement reached with Fife Council in April 2019 agreed reduction of hours at several centres as proposed but specifically did not include the Beacon. The three year financial agreement with FSLT was to bring stability to the organisation. The need for further budget savings raised to the board in October last year indicates to me that the expected stability in the three year agreement was not being achieved only six months into the new 36 month agreement.

“Fife Council and the trust will address that and I certainly hope the change request to reduce hours at the Beacon proposed by the trust are rejected. What follows that rejection in terms of budget and management will be key to the future of all of the assets of the trust.”

Burntisland Labour councillor Gordon Langlands said: “We lost the cafe a couple of years ago, and that was a huge mistake. It’s a tourist town. There’s a lack of toilet facilities and the Beacon didn’t advertise the cafe and facilities.

“You can’t just go on making cuts.

“My main concern is the deterioration in services. The other aspect is because there’s no representation by the swimming club or Burntisland and Kinghorn with the trust.”

However, Burntisland SNP councillor Lesley Backhouse was confident that the council would stop cuts to the hours happening.

She said: “I’ve spoken with the officers and Fife Sports and Leisure Trust have to get agreement from Fife Council before they can actually change hours or close a centre, and it’s not going to happen.

“The SNP group and the Labour group in the joint administration won’t let that happen.”

She added that given the growth in Fife’s population, there is a definite need for facilities like the Beacon.

She said: “People come from all over, even from outwith Fife to the Beacon, it’s a big draw for the town, and it’s a very well-used facility.

“All the new houses that are getting built in Fife; we’ve just had 323 new houses in Burntisland, and 160 houses at Kinghorn Loch.

“We need our leisure and cultural facilities, as it’s all about the health and wellbeing of our population.

“We maybe need to look at it’s cost efficiency, perhaps generating its own power in an environmentally friendly way.

“If you look at what we’ve done at the Michael Woods centre in Glenrothes where we recycle the water on the roof to flush the toilets, solar panels, ground heat and source heat pumps.”

Fife Council have been contacted for comment.