PRESSURE is growing on Fife Council with six community councils, five aquatics clubs and Inverkeithing United FC all asking for a better sporting chance for the high school site.
They're not impressed with the six options for community-use and sports facilities in West Fife that will be taken forward, after a narrow vote at the cabinet committee, with concern that it won't be what they want or need and may not even be in the town.
The community councils of Aberdour, Dalgety Bay and Hillend, Inverkeithing, North Queensferry, Rosyth and South Dunfermline, as well as Inverkeithing United FC, all signed a joint letter calling on the council to support "ambitious investment".
It read: "West Fife already suffers from an ageing sporting estate, an assortment of historic closures, and a general under-provision of facilities - all of which mean our local sporting organisations compete for limited slots at our local pools, pitches and halls.
"This leaves little to no capacity for public access or club expansion and has led to some community sporting groups being displaced or disbanded entirely.
"It is therefore imperative that any decision made with respect of community-use facilities in West Fife first and foremost prioritises the needs of our communities and local sporting organisations."
The options include refurbishing existing community-use and sporting facilities at Inverkeithing High site or a new purpose-built site.
Worryingly for the community councils, two of the options are for alternative locations, and they reminded the council of the "implicit commitment" given in 2020, when the decision was taken to build a replacement high school in Rosyth, to invest and retain facilities at the current high school site.
The letter went on: "The school-based model of swimming provision within secondary school campuses has failed.
"The existing Inverkeithing pool sits empty during the day in term time without any ability for members of the public or other schools to access the facility.
"Outwith school hours the pool is fully booked with little to no public swimming and severe competition among community clubs for the limited slots available to them.
"Considering this we raise concerns about the proposals which would see a swimming pool sited, as an afterthought, at the new school campus in Rosyth.
"This would be a costly mistake which, as noted in the committee paper, would also come at the expense of one of the new and much needed sports pitches due to be constructed.
"Instead we believe locating a new pool facility in Inverkeithing would create the possibility of developing a west community sports hub which would support a multitude of local needs and aspirations, and that would not be possible to the same extent at any other site."
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For their part, Inverkeithing Utd have already outlined plans to develop such a hub which would include astroturf pitches, changing rooms, toilets, cafe, gym and multi-use hall, that could be developed alongside a new pool.
The West Fife aquatics clubs - Carnegie Swimming Club, Dunfermline Amateur Swimming Club, Dunfermline Water Polo Club, Fife Artistic Swimming Club and Inverkeithing Competitive Amateur Swimmers (InCAS) - also sent in a joint letter to the council.
The options put before the cabinet committee were for, at best, a new 25 metre pool which they said "won’t go anywhere near meeting current demand, let alone future demand".
The letter added: "There is continuing pressure from the public for more time for family and individual swimming and the clubs are severely limited in how many people they can take by lack of pool time and space."
The clubs want the council to raise their ambition and "develop a ground-breaking plan to use new aquatic and community facilities" that would be "genuinely inspiring and potentially life changing for the communities of West Fife".
Together the five clubs are calling on the council to commit to providing "decent sized swimming pools", two 25m pools with deep water provision, and work with local clubs and Scottish Swimming to ensure sustainable facilities are delivered to meet demand now and in the future.
Posting after the cabinet committee meeting, Labour councillor for Inverkeithing and Dalgety Bay, Patrick Browne, said: "The options going forward range from new football and changing facilities on the site up to the option of a new pool and facilities at the Inverkeithing school site or new pool at the new high school in Rosyth.
"For the record, none of the several options in the paper from officers were ruled out. They were all referred to the council’s capital programme review early next year which would have happened anyway given there is no current budget for any new facilities at the IHS site.
"No decisions were taken today on any of the options. I'm looking forward to continuing dialogue with stakeholders and the community moving forward in arriving at a decision."
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