VOLUNTEERS have set themselves the massive task of raising a ‘war chest’ of £60,000 to help ensure the continued future of Tenbury Swimming Pool.

The pool and leisure centre is owned by the people of the town who have the job of making sure that it can keep going.

But this is no easy task as the facility dates back to the late 1960’s and is starting to show its age.

Under the conditions of a management agreement Freedom Leisure operate the pool and the adjacent gym.

Freedom Leisure is responsible to the day-to-day upkeep but any bill of more than £10,000 lands with Tenbury Community Pool’s that undertook its first major fundraising event with a charity lunch for more than 60 people at St. Michael’s Village Hall.

Tenbury Community Pool takes the place of the Guild that was responsible for the creation of the swimming pool many years ago.

It is a Charity and Company Limited by Guarantee and has four directors, Hannah Cashmore, Alan Dale, Jane Jenner and Adrian Taylor who all operate as volunteers.

The task before them is huge, as they have to raise funds to pay for all major repairs over £10,000. Anything below this is the responsibility of Freedom Leisure who take care of the day to day running of the pool on the behalf of Tenbury Community Pool.

A lot of work is needed to make sure that the pool that is fast approaching 50 years old continues to meet current standards and satisfy the expectations of those who use it!

As a consequence the directors have had to set a target of having £60,000 in the bank to cover possible events. This would cover a major failure such as a failure of the boiler that heats the water.

The pool, gym and its operators are committed to playing their part in helping people in the town and surrounding area to improve their health and wellbeing.

An initiative has already been launched that involves people being able to buy a scratch card to win a prize.

St Michael’s Village Hall, with its new facilities, provided an excellent venue for this charity lunch that raised £570 but that still leaves a long way to go to get to the target of £60,000.

Malvern Hills District Council has agreed to provide an annual grant of nearly £70,000 for the next five years.

However, after that the pool and leisure centre that is owned by Tenbury Community Pool established last year will need to become financially viable.

The management of the pool was taken over by Freedom Leisure earlier this year and a new gym was opened as part of a series of investment.

More than £200,000 has been be spent on environmental improvements.

The main aim of the improvements was to make Tenbury Swimming Pool more environmentally friendly by reducing its energy emissions, saving electricity and gas and recycling more of the water within the building.

Air conditioning system throughout the building was upgraded to be more energy efficient and cost-effective.

The pool hall lighting was modernised to reduce its electricity consumption and a pool cover installed to ensure that less heat is lost from the water overnight, thus reducing the amount of energy required to bring it up to temperature each morning.