FRIENDS OF LEESLAND SWIMMING POOL

We have set up a FOLSP group to support the pool and the fund raising efforts needed to keep it up together.  We would like to see representatives of all the stakeholders involved in the pool including staff, governors, parents, hirers, local businesses, St. Mary’s Parish, and anyone else who is interested and willing to be part of such an important facility.  .  If you would like to know more please speak to Kate Hedges.

Summer 2023 Update

Support Group

Our pool is not funded by the local authority so almost all the maintenance has to be paid for through fund raising.  Since 2015 we have raised £127,000 and made many improvements to the facility. 

We have now set up a FOLSP group to support the pool and the fund raising efforts needed to keep it up together.  We would like to welcome more representatives of all the stakeholders involved in the pool including staff, governors, parents, hirers, local businesses, St. Mary’s Parish, and anyone else who is interested and willing to be part of overseeing such an important facility.    We are starting to organise some social events and are looking at grants that could be accessed to support the pool.    If you think you could help us or would like to know more please speak to our Business Manager, Kate Hedges.

Our first social event is a Night of Sea Shanties on Friday 13th October - Tickets are £10 and include food and live music.

A lot has happened in our pool - we have:

Replaced all the internal wood and glazed panels with UPVC panels and replaced the fire exit doors - £7551.89

Bought new mats for the changing rooms - £1010.80

Painted the walls - £278.60.

This summer we have a fabulous team of volunteers from Crewsaver who had a 'Purpose Day' where they come out into the community to lend their support.  Over 4 days we had 40 volunteers who repainted all the blue sections of wall in the pool building.  Some also did some jobs around the grounds.  A big thank you from us all for making the pool look much improved.

We continue to take every opportunity to get out into the community to do fund raising and to raise the profile of the pool and remind people why it is such an amazing resource and why it is so important that we keep it going.  We were at Leesland Parkfest and will be at the Michaelmas Fayre too.  We recently help our first Colourfest.  

Last year we had a circus in school and in July 2022 we celebrated the pools 50th Anniversary.  We also held a Countryside Fair.  We also received donations from Aqua Academy (£1247.50), Gosport Road Runners (£1000), £250 from a Fareham Lodge and Mr & Mrs K (£1000) whose father helped to build the pool back in 1972! 

We have since been building up our funds to go towards replacing the pool liner - an item which we had originally been estimated at £25,000 but should hopefully only cost around £18,000.  We have £15,000 towards this so far.

 

 

 

Update on Pool Fund Raising - Jan 2021

February 2020 saw our swimming pool being awarded £21,939 from the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL).  This fund is managed by Gosport Borough Council and Gosport Voluntary Action and comes from the construction of local business parks.  When Brockhurst Gate was developed opposite Holbrook, (M & S, Lidl, Home bargains etc) it was a condition of the contract that the developers gave a sum money to support local community projects.  We put a bid forward for funds to enable us to refurbish the changing rooms including ventilation, a contribution towards the new pool covers and to replace the fire exit doors.

The changing room refurbishment work took place in the summer and they look fantastic and are so much easier to keep clean.  The pool covers have been replaced including a gear reduction system which means you can remove the covers with one hand rather than needing two people like before!  The fire exit doors will be replaced in the next few months along with all the remaining internal wooden and glass panels and doors.   This has been a very productive time for the pool project and we are very grateful to the CIL!

 

Whilst the pool project has been able to move forward despite restrictions, the 2020-21 financial year will be remembered as the year when no school fund raising for the pool took place due to the Coronovirus.  However, two main Gosport running clubs more than made up for that lack of income.

 

Mrs Birch, our own Family Support Worker in the Infants kindly nominated the pool for a charity donation from her running club, Gosport Road Runners.  We were successful and were very pleased to receive £1000 which was half of the cost of a new pool hoover which is vital in helping to keep the pool water clean and at a high quality.  Mrs Birch, presented the cheque to Mrs Hedges on behalf of the club. 

 

One of our parents very kindly nominated the pool to be the annual charity for GosVegas Running Club.  Other members of the club include the two directors of Aqua Academy and together the members ran more than a few miles and held an auction to raise funds for us.  We were thrilled to be contacted by Nick Carter, the club's founder who presented us with £1800!  In addition, another of their members was able to obtain matched funding from Lloyds Bank of £500 and Nick's own employer, Cooperative Funeralcare donated £300.  In total, a massive £2600.  Thank you Nick and all the GosVegas team.

In a separate donation, Aqua Academy gave us £175 being the proceeds from their spring prize draw which took place before the March lockdown!

We are hugely grateful to our school and local community for supporting our pool.

We have spent the following on our pool:

£2,049.13   Pool Hoover

£9,396.00   Pool Covers

£12,699.00 Changing Rooms and toilet refurbishment

£30.00        Storage box

We have £7,384 left for the fire exit doors and internal panels and doors to the toilet, plant and boiler rooms.

 

 

UPDATE ON POOL:  October 2019

Having saved the pool from closure by raising £65,000 to replace the roof, we were also able to raise the extra needed to replace the front doors and obtain a grant to replace the water heating boiler which broke down in September 2018.   In total we have raised £80,166.99 up to the end of March 2019 and have spent £76,967.00 so we have brought forward a balance of £3166.99 to go towards the next part of the ongoing maintenance project. 

 

The first priority this financial year was to replace the intruder alarm system which was done in the summer term and now we are working on raising the £10,000 needed to replace the pool covers which are now in a poor condition and becoming too heavy for one person to roll back on their own.

What’s next for the pool work?

We were able to make a start on the decorating of the pool building in the summer and are very grateful to Richardsons Decorating who supplied us with the paint at cost price which saved us quite a bit of money but still cost £603.26.  This work will continue.  

 

2019-2020 Fund Raising for the swimming pool

£925 has been raised by Aqua Academy from a sponsored swim in March. 

£1075.64 was raised at the Summer Show in June

£159.00 was raised at Sultan Show

£30.94 from the Small Change/Big Difference – Milk bottle collections.  We do this every 2 years and plan to start this collection again in September.

£261.87 from the Quiz & Curry Night which was a great evening.  Mrs Wild created a brilliant quiz and Mrs Long provided the excellent food! 

£33 was raised at Bridgemary Carnival

£94.25 was raised at the Michelmas Fair

We continue to try to get out into the community as much as possible to raise awareness of the pool and to raise funds.   We don't make lots of money at these events but it is lovely to be in the community and raising awareness.  Unfortunately we were unable to be at Leesland Parkfest on 14 September as it clashed with the Heritage days.