At long last our local Lido is finally about to open. From someone who grew up with a pool in his back garden (literally) to now have one on my doorstep (In a addition to the beach/sea) is pretty awesome.
The tickets were supposed to go on sale today, they had a technical glitch – it happens, whatever, we’ll survive, but they also released the pricing structure for the “season”. Their season effectively runs for July and August, plus or minus a few weekends. And boy… has the backlash ensued on facebook! The pricing has proved to be a little controversial and certainly a hot topic in our community.
Giving you a little bit of background, we haven’t swam in the lido for some 7/8 years or so as it had to be redeveloped to be useable again and the team behind it (Saltdean Lido Community Interest Company) have worked tirelessly to deliver a massive undertaking, in addition to their “normal” jobs, families and life commitments. For that I praise them. It’s an incredible feat they’ve overcome!
What I don’t like, is some of the comments aimed at that team. I ran a charity myself for a number of years. Like the lido committee, our charity punched above its weight with all the big ones, run by an voluntary trustee board. We did as much as we could to keep costs to a minimum, as I’m sure the lido committee has done too. I highly doubt the discussion on pricing was taken lightly!
Before I get onto the subject of much of the controversy, there have been a number of comments negatively placed towards the team that had spent the last 7 years or so trying to create us a new lido facility. They need to stop. You could have volunteered your time at any point to help support them, so cut the crap and be nice.
However…
The pricing has effectively put it at such a rate that my family of four has to pay either £20 a day to swim or £250 for a season (8 weeks plus a few weekends). I have a couple of close, local family friends with families of 5, there cost goes up a bit more! By the committee’s own calculations (posted on Facebook) you’d need to use it at least 50 times or so to bring the price down per visit to that around £3 or so, out of approximately 60 possible days. But then we’re starting to talk semantics… Yea that’s more cost effective, sure. But…
The price is attractive for people like myself who swim pretty regularly, but your average punter won’t be doing that. And my family will make the most out of it as well – we’re all water lovers, but thinking about the majority, it’s pretty expensive. Considering I can keep my David Lloyd membership for the same period to swim whenever we want, in a relatively empty pool, whatever the weather and have use of all gym facilities, it’s hard to compete with that pricing, given our summers don’t always allow for all day outside fun in the sun, short of pure swim fun, how many days can be set aside to play on the lawns all day, picnic and swim? Minor detail, but worth thinking about when you calculate your cost per swim.
It also works out really well for me, who luckily gets to work from home when not travelling (though I’ve been away for about 18 days in May!) with my job, so I can make a swim at any point during the day. Selfishly, I’m hoping the pricing means the pool will be empty for me 😌 For those with early commutes and late finishes – the opening times aren’t ideal. But running costs of course need to be considered.
We also need to bear in mind that this isn’t just another lido. It hasn’t had much backing or support (if any? I would need to fact check here…) from our local councils and governments. The committee has had to campaign hard to get the money to stave off developers from sticking up another hundred flats or whatever. It’s also worth noting that any money “made” goes back into the facility – it’s not lining fat cats pockets as some called out today.
We also need to think about the fact that the pool is heated. Our other local lido in Lewes is not, so hopefully there is some justification there for people. There are enough arguments to justify the costs here for sure, but equally, when the entire project had been around building our community, the pricing is putting out a lot of the very community that supported it in the first place. This is where I’m a little torn…
It is expensive. We don’t really have the money… but we do know that our family will love using this beautiful pool all summer long, so it’s worth an investment. I will train there, hoppefully with my TriPals regularly too.
People have been winging about this cost but then also food costs, then bus costs, then whatever costs. Take a pack lunch. Buy a saver ticket. Do whatever you want, but keep your comments from being personal…
The other argument from the committe I’m not totally comfortable with is that there was involvement of the local community in pricing discussions and such like. We went to a number of these meetings and when asked, there was no confirmation of pricing, so I’m intrigued to know when these discussions happened? The very same goes for a number of surveys that were sent out to the community. I recall only ever receiving one?
A number of comments from both punters and the committee talk about it being priced as an attraction to compete with other local attractions such as the giant stick in the sky on our seafront or anything else people pay for nearby. I don’t really care about those as I don’t buy into them anyway… That point about it being an attraction however, hadn’t been made clear before. Certainly in none of the meetings we attended, although it would be stating the bleeding obvious to say people would come from afar to enjoy this amazing facility. So yes, it is an attraction and the team need to recoup costs wherever possible to keep it running, but perhaps pricing and the local community should have been discussed a bit more or even consulted with.
The pool is looking absolutely amazing and even if in a minority, it’s likely we will buy a season pass to enjoy the pool at our leisure, but for a community project, it doesn’t feel very community supported today. And sadly, as much as my charity was answerable to the charity commission and its followers, the Lido team are as well. I do hope they’re not sad tonight however…
I want to take nothing away from the team that have pulled off this incredible feat. Knowing the feeling form my charity side, they have done something quite extraordinary.
Thank you, you have done an incredible job.
Anyway, one random swimmers thoughts… see you in the water 😉
For full pricing, check it out here
Further to some comments received – I am in no way affiliated with the team that run the Lido or do I even know any of them personally!
picture credit Saltdean Lido Community Interest Company