Why Hampton Pool Trust feels it’s time to act

The need to improve accessibility

• There are currently no changing facilities for families, for parents with children over 8 or for transgender individuals. We currently have just one Disabled changing facility that doubles as the only cubicle for family changing and for baby change.
• Our gym is not currently fit-for-purpose; it is undersized and does not provide for people with mobility and accessibility issues.

• The Sundeck Café is small and inaccessible to many – those with mobility issues or with wheelchairs or buggies are restricted from accessing the terrace. Café usage plummets during rain and poor weather as there is little shelter for customers to meet, eat and drink.

As a community charity that aims to promote the health and wellbeing of all local residents, we must ensure our facilities are accessible to all.

• The current building was built as a summer-use only facility in 1959/1960. After 60 years, the structure and plant are now showing significant signs of aging.
• Electrical power used by the pool site is already at maximum output capacity. The sauna, for example, cannot run at the same time as the pool filters as this threatens to trip the power. As such, a new transformer is needed to balance the existing electricity usage. The transformer is a UK power networks solution to provide HP with an increased feed as it saves them a long dig from the nearest transformer and saves us the expense of that dig (it should also be noted that UK Power Networks will take the opportunity to use that new transformer to increase the capacity of the local street network. The transformer capacity will have far larger capacity than HP’s demand).
• The current main pool filters are large and very old, dating from 1939 and 1959, and environmentally inefficient. They waste high volumes of water and use a lot of energy to replace them. Whilst they have some life left in them, they are likely to need replacing within the next 5-10 years.
• HPT has also been in discussions with Thames Water over a number of years. The wider Hampton sewerage system, which was built for a much smaller community, is at capacity. This now means that a full backwash from the Pool could bring the levels in the sewers to unacceptable levels. Thames Water have said that they are not planning on increasing their pipe capacity and HPT therefore needs to introduce a backwash tank, something that would hold thousands of gallons of water and drip feed this into the mains. The cost of doing this would stretch to around £500,000.

Understandably, there has been a lot of public feedback and negativity around the current condition of the facilities. The current Hampton Pool building was built 60 years ago, for a different time and as a temporary structure. Current fixes have extended the life span of the existing facilities but wholescale upgrading is now needed within the next 10 years. The building is now tired, expensive to maintain and long overdue its first full upgrade of its current facilities and plant, the cost of which can’t be covered by the revenue generated from the current running of the Pool and concert revenue alone.

Hampton Pool Trust needs to invest in the future of Hampton Pool by replacing much of the existing facilities and infrastructure. Patching up existing facilities is not a long-term solution and will eventually become unsustainable. The new facilities must also allow for increased income generation to support the future viability of this much loved pool.

• At present the Pool makes a loss three out of twelve months per year (on average). Losses occur during the off-peak months when the use of the Pool is at its minimum, therefore any development needs to look at ways to generate new and increase existing income in these off-peak times.
• The gym and studio are currently well under the standards required to allow for any increase in activity. Currently, the exercise studio needs to be completely full to financially break even meaning that any low impact activity such as Pilates (which has less people in the group because of the space required) cannot be run economically.

Hampton Pool Trust needs to address the accessibility and infrastructure issues and put in place a business plan that will facilitate increased income surplus. The new business plan will allow us to enhance the facilities by increasing income during off-peak times. At the same time, by addressing the issues with the plant, our energy use and the physical fabric of the building, we expect to reduce the cost of maintenance and repairs by 40%.