The University hopes that a new design for the Hes East swimming pool will cut costs and help reduce the £4 million funding gap that has been plaguing the project.
“The University has commissioned further design work on the swimming pool project with the aim of helping to bridge the current funding gap,” The University comments in a statement to Vision.
The swimming pool is a joint venture between the University and the City of York Council, with the University setting aside £5 million pounds for the project and the council supplying £2 million. The pool, along with a leisure complex was initially set to be completed by summer 2011.
However, a price tag of £11 million left a £4 million funding gap to filled. Furthermore, earlier this year a report by the council’s audit commission revealed the 2011 deadline to be in jeopardy. The Council’s Assistant Director of Lifelong Learning at one point admitted that the pool might be as much as 25 years away.
The proposed restructuring of the design now gives new hope to the building plans.
Council leader Andrew Waller will present the plans to the City Of York Council on Thursday. The council’s University Pool Steering Group will then review the plans to see if they fully meet the city’s needs.
Both the University and Mr. Waller deny that the quality of the pool is being sacrificed to cut costs.
“The new design will not compromise the quality of the pool — we are seeking to reduce costs by taking advantage of an increasingly competitive construction market” states the University, while Mr. Waller comments that the new designs considered are still “very high quality”.
There are hopes that a report to the council identifying a clearer way forward will emerge by summer, and Mr. Waller says “there are reasons to be optimistic”.
The University acknowledges the importance of on-campus swimming facilities, concluding that “we recognize the attractions that a swimming pool will have for students, and we are continuing discussions with City of York Council to achieve it.”
I’m not entirely sure what costs can be cut – they were already planning on using various cost cutting measures including a few ways of heating the pool cleverly and more methods besides. I can’t think of many ways of cutting costs on large projects without just shrinking the quality or size of the swimming pool?
Perhaps that’s because you aren’t a trained architect, Jason. Maybe we should leave this one to the experts rather than the marginally informed…
haven’t you heard, Jason is an expert in everything!
What I don’t understand is how a swimming pool can cost so much money. My school built one in 1994 after a fund-raising drive with the parents and I’m pretty sure they didn’t raise 11 million for it.
My point was, Mr Kettle (who isn’t at this university? Presumably a pseudonym?), that their original plans were “cost-saving” so cutting 20% out of the original cost would only be possible by cutting quality/size?
And the reason it’s so expensive is because it’s going to be publicly-accessible and will basically become York’s second swimming pool (http://www.york.gov.uk/leisure/swimming/ lists only one) and current one isn’t exactly massive (http://www.york.gov.uk/leisure/sports/Sports_facilities/Yearsley_swimming_pool/facilities/)…
I work as a lifeguard at a council pool in York which according to “J” doesn’t basically even exist. (Oh, n incidentally Yearsley is a huge, if rather old, 50m pool.)
But my point is that co-operation with the council probably isn’t the best idea; those higher up seem to be utterly incompetent in organising matters like this. Witness, for example, the 4.8 million they wasted on the aborted Hungate development (http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/4231430.Inquiry_call_into_Hungate_council_HQ_project_costs/)
Not many students realise this, but there used to be a massive swimming pool/sport centre complex at the now enigmatic, ghostly remains of what the locals call “The Barbican Centre”. This was closed, apparently due to unaffordable running costs, but people who used to work there have told me it was basically run into the ground. At five or ten minutes distance from the Uni, and considering that many students now pay 50 quid (?) a month for David Lloyd’s membership, I’m sure that if the council had marketed it properly, they could have made a killing.
In other words, expect news like this for a while yet…