At the most recent meeting of Sport Aberdeen’s board of directors, the decision was reluctantly taken to temporarily decommission the leisure pool at Get active @ Beach Leisure Centre. This will take effect towards the end of August, with the pool open throughout the school summer holidays. The rest of the centre will remain fully operational.

Sport Aberdeen Managing Director, Alistair Robertson, stated;

“Sadly, the company is facing unprecedented and unsustainable rises in energy costs which are approaching £0.5million and the board had to take action to protect the rest of our network of sports centres and swimming pools.  It is widely known that the flume slides and wave machine features have continually failed to the point that they are no longer operable.

“Leisure operators throughout the UK are facing a crisis with many swimming pools closing because of rising energy costs. We have not taken this decision lightly, however with Get active @ Northfield due to open late summer we know we will be able to move the vast majority of our programme of swimming lessons to other pools across the city. All staff affected will have their jobs secured at other venues and the management team is working hard to ensure that there is a smooth transition of lessons to other facilities.

“We will review the position in the spring with the hope that the situation will have eased and we will be able to reopen the pool at that time. We very much look forward to the ongoing development of the Beachfront Masterplan and the new leisure offer that this will bring.”

Councillor Alex Nicoll, co-leader of Aberdeen City Council commented;

“We fully appreciate the pressures facing Sport Aberdeen and everyone else who runs swimming pools across the city. We understand that this is a pragmatic decision in exceptional times. If energy pressures ease, we hope that the pool will reopen in the spring.”

All participants in the Learn to Swim programme based at Get active @ Beach Leisure Centre have been contacted directly to advise that the learn to swim team is working very hard to plan the reallocation of all swimming lessons which are running at Get active @ Beach Leisure Centre to other pools in the city. We will be in touch with participants again later this month to begin the process of relocating lessons.

Further information on the impact of the energy crisis on the leisure industry can be found here.