The Good News!
The Trustees of Whitchurch Community Swimming Pool are delighted to be able to share that we now have an agreed lease in place – the pool is officially ours! We’d like to start by thanking a few key people who have been involved in the lengthy, complicated process – and in particular the Governors at Testbourne: Steve Martin, Clare Scheckter, Neil Hopkins, Ian Wingfield and Steve Slack. Without their patience and pragmatism, we would not have got to this stage, and we are incredibly grateful.
What’s Next?
The hard work, of course, starts here. With the Easter Break upon us, the Trustees will be meeting to discuss next steps on 22nd April. We will agree a high-level project plan for the coming months. Honestly, you won’t see much happening for a while. As you may know, we have not had any meaningful access to the site yet, and we will need to engage with some professionals to take stock of what we have. There are some requirements on us in terms of separating services from the school, and we need to understand the condition of the pool and plant room, as well as the site.
How Can You Help?
We can’t sugar-coat the fact that we simply don’t have enough money right now. We need your help. We will be actively pursuing grant funding (much of this has required us to have a lease in place). We will be looking for business sponsors, match funding, any fundraising our supporters might be able to take on, and donations. We will also need active volunteers in the coming months, who are prepared to take on responsibilities during the refurbishment…
Useful Information
- We are a Charity. We are registered with the Charity Commission and our Charity Number is 1203994.
- We have a website. We will continue to work on this, but it will be the “one stop shop” for the Pool. https://wcsp.org.uk
- More information about some of our likely costs is available here. The financial challenge ahead of us is significant.
- You can donate as an individual or a business, using our secure Paypal account, via the Website. If you’re a business, you might even manage to get a donation in before the end of the Financial Year…! https://wcsp.org.uk/donate-here/
- Please take the time to sign up with Easy Fundraising – this is a very simple process, and means your shopping with certain brands will raise money for the pool. https://tinyurl.com/5n7bsttt
- We have a Facebook page, and an Instagram account (@wcspool). Please make sure you are a member, and let anyone else locally know!
- You can volunteer or re-volunteer using this form. We will reach out to people as we need help.
- You can contact us via the Website, or by emailing info@wcsp.org.uk.
Thank you for all your support so far. We will keep you updated with progress. Our first task is to work out exactly what needs to be done – there’s a long road ahead, but we’ve taken a big step forward.
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