Jubilee Swimming Pool in Knowle is a well used facility for all of Totterdown, Knowle, and Brislington. At time of writing, Jubilee pool is still closed and at threat of permanent closure.
Recently Mayor Marvin Rees published a blog post about the pool closure. He states that Bristol has a large amount of public swimming space (measured in m2). Presumably the aim is to make it seem like the closure of the pool is not an issue and that the city is well covered with swimming pool provision.
On the wider point of Bristol’s swimming facilities, we are doing pretty well. Bristol does better than most other core cities for pool space offered.
Marvin Rees
I find this a very duplicitous response as it avoids the issue of local community provision and tries to hide behind overall space for the city. It suggests that having a very large pool in Hengrove is beneficial to residents in the far north of the city. Clearly this is not the case. Most people want local access to swimming facilities and are unlikely to cross the city.
We have mapped all public pools across the city (with names taken from the BCC website) and drawn a 2km radius around each site. This shows the coverage for residents. For example, residents along Gloucester Road around Northville fall into the catchment area for both Filton and Horfield pools.
This diagram shows Jubilee Pool with a red circle. Clearly if the pool were to be closed, then large areas of Totterdown, Knowle, and Brislington would lose local access to a pool. We need to remember that not all residents have cars (teenagers, older residents, people making the choice to be car less) and that public transport is patchy at best for accessing other facilities. If a local pool is removed, some will just lose all access.
So the next time Mayor Rees (or any others) state that the city has a large amount of pool facilities, remind them that these are clustered in certain areas and does not represent the experience for large parts of the city.