Agenda item

To answer questions (if any) from members of the public pursuant to Rule 10 of the Council’s Rules of Procedure (as amended by the Protocol and Procedure Rules for Remote Meetings).

Questions by members of the public must be received by 5pm two clear working days prior to the day of the meeting – the deadline for this meeting is 5pm Wednesday 21 October 2020.

The Chief Executive reported there was one question from a member of the public.

Question asked by Mr Jody Raggo pursuant to paragraph 10 of the Rules of Procedure as set out in the Constitution.

“Question to the Leader of the Council - What are the reasons why Boston Borough Council did not instruct Boston College to also incorporate the Training Pool facility, a well used and valued asset at Geoff Moulder Leisure Centre, into the latest plans for the Mayflower Suite and what are the Borough Council plans to provide a dedicated training pool for our upcoming Bostonian athletes and swimmers in the future?”

Response by Councillor Paul Skinner

“Thank you for your question, Mr Raggo.

“Firstly, there are many uses to the training pool in the Geoff Moulder Leisure Centre. My observation is that we didn’t instruct anybody to do anything at this stage, because we are in the early stages of scheme development and we will need to decide the precise combination through an intuitive process that takes account of cost of maintaining, improving, replacing and/or relocating various facilities.

“There are various projects that the Town Board are in the process of bidding for and Boston Borough Council is the fund holder for this process. The Town Board are the generator of the schemes and these are not fully developed projects yet. They are developed schemes, but the detail is probably not all there at this stage. There were some bits shared with us last week. I can confirm to you that I was probably one of the few Councillors here today that took part in the protest march 10 years ago and also that Positive Futures aided by Boston Canoe Club were actually using the training pool prior to it being heated and prior to it being open to members of the public.”

Supplemental question asked by Councillor Rush pursuant to paragraph 10.8 of the Rules of Procedure as set out in the Constitution:-

“At the cabinet meeting on Wed 9^th Sep, the cabinet agreed the following recommendation “that the Deputy Chief Executive (Strategy) be authorised to communicate to the Principal of Boston College that the Council is minded to enter into an agreement to lease the Geoff Moulder Centre in order to facilitate the development of the College’s Mayflower Centre project.” and the Deputy Chief Executive (Strategy) communicated to the cabinet during the meeting that Boston College needed reassurances from Boston Borough Council so they can instruct their architects to develop plans for the Mayflower Suite.

“Also at the Town Board meeting on the 5^th October, which both you and Cllr Goodale attended as representatives of Boston Borough Council, the board agreed for the college to develop a proposal to incorporate the leisure pool into the designs for the Mayflower Suite. I, therefore, respectfully disagree with you that the Boston Borough Council have not instructed anyone to do anything at this time.

“I therefore like to ask again why there has been little to no consideration in incorporating the training pool facility (alongside the leisure pool) into any future plans for the Mayflower Suite or PE21 and will the Boston Borough Council tonight make a commitment to support the users of the Training Pool (including the Boston Amateur Swimming Club, Boston Canoe Club, the Sub-Aqua Club, the Sea Cadets and the many other groups) in providing an alternative suitable location to use if the Training Pool facility does not feature in any future plans?”

Response by Councillor Skinner

“Thank you for your supplementary question, Mr Raggo.

“The clue is in the wording actually – “minded to”. Quite frankly, anybody can have plans to do anything with anybody else’s property, but there is little point in doing anything at all unless people are actually minded to even look at it.  So, at the moment this is all in very early stages and it is that we are minded to look at it. This is part of a bid process. The bid process is due to be in for 31st of this month.

“This process was started in January. Our colleagues in economic development worked very hard with the Town Committee to actually pull all this together so that it can actually be considered. So at the moment nobody is committed to anything exactly, only the principles to look at it and the principles to receive a grant, and I very much hope that everybody in the town will actually welcome the work that’s gone in.

“You will hear a little bit later on that £25 million of the Government there’s another £13 million that is added to that: this project is £38 million to this town. So, it’s quite easy, do we consider it or do we just park it? I think we consider it and work very hard to look at all the solutions possible.”