The Sunday Times April 10, 2022 15NEWS
with recruitment [and] running costs,
and we’ve got issues with supply chains
to keep our pools open. It’s going to make
a lot of pools become unviable without
support,” he said.
At Elswick pool, near Newcastle upon
Tyne, the picture is similar. Philip Jame-
son, 37, the manager, said: “From April 1
our energy prices went up about 350 per
cent for the gas: £70,000 to £80,000 a
year extra on utility bills. That’s some-
thing that we don’t have any money for
because we haven’t been open long
enough to build up any reserves. But
even if we did have substantial reserves,
they would soon disappear.”
Those running pools say they do not
yet know by how much they will have to
raise the cost of a swimming session and
are still hoping to find other options.
While some have been working to
ensure buildings are more energy effi-
cient, older baths in listed buildings are
unable to make significant changes to
improve insulation.
According to Community Leisure UK,
which represents charitable trusts that
provide leisure services, public bodies or
gym users at the same facilities subsidise
each swimming session in the UK by £5,
on average.
“That’s only going to get higher,” said
Kirsty Cumming, its chief executive.
“And local authorities are not in a posi-Swimming pools say they may have to
increase prices — or close — because of
soaring energy costs.
With bills at pools rising by as much as
350 per cent compared with last year,
some are saving on heating by lowering
the temperature of the water, while oth-
ers are facing paying tens of thousands of
pounds extra.
There are just over 4,300 public swim-
ming pools in England, according to
Swim England, but the organisation pre-
dicts that number could fall by at least
40 per cent by the end of the decade.
Soaring energy costs have already led
to millions of households paying about
£700 more a year for electricity and gas
after the energy cap was raised.
Pools are being particularly hard hit
because of the amount of energy
required to keep buildings and water at a
constant temperature 365 days a year.
Chris Porter, facility manager at Tad-
caster community swimming pool in
North Yorkshire, had been paying about
£50,000 a year for electricity, but his
quote for renewing the contract is
£135,000. His gas bill is expected to dou-
ble. Although the pool is run as a not-for-
profit, Porter said he would have no
choice but to raise entry fees. “We’re now
coming out of Covid and we’re sufferingHannah Al-OthmanSink or swim: community pools could
go under due to soaring energy bills
Rocketing gas and electricity costs are forcing pools to turn down thermostats or bump up prices to keep their heads above water
tion to provide support because they’re
under pressure themselves.” A survey of
Community Leisure UK members found
that bills have, on average, gone up by
113 per cent since 2019.
The group’s chairman, Phil Rumbe-
low, said: “Members are having to con-
sider how to best mitigate these costs and
make incredibly tough decisions. Consid-
erations include increasing pricing,
partial or full closure of facilities and
activities, reducing the number of pools,
and less reinvestment back into services
and charitable activities.”
A global chlorine shortage is also lead-
ing to problems. A 25kg drum, which
lasts about five days, used to be priced at
£85, Porter said. Now it costs more than
£100. Last month, pools in Hartlepool
were closed for eight days due to a lack of
chlorine.
David Wilford, the chief executive of
Bramley Baths, a grade II listed building
in Leeds that dates to 1904, said: “We’re
doing everything we can to save money
and save energy at the same time. These
ultramodern pools are very energy effi-
cient, but we don’t have that luxury.”
Jane Nickerson, chief executive of
Swim England, said she was “terrified”
by the problems. “It’s short-sighted to let
swimming disappear,” she warned.
“Swimming pools will close.”
@HannahAlOthmanThe
place is
run like
a prisonFour-year-old Toby plays in Bramley Baths, Leeds. Established in 1904, it is one of many pools struggling with energy costsANDREW MCCAREN FOR THE SUNDAY TIMESAutistic man held
with murderers
in secure hospital
A mother is battling to get her
29-year-old autistic son
released from a maximum
security hospital where his
fellow patients include some
of the UK’s most disturbed
murderers and sex offenders.
The man, who cannot be
named, has committed no
criminal offence but is being
held under the Mental Health
Act at Rampton in
Nottinghamshire, one of
three high-security hospitals
in England and Wales.
Other residents include
Eltiona Skana, a paranoid
schizophrenic who randomly
stabbed to death a 7-year-old
girl in a park in Bolton, and
Odessa Carey, who chopped
off her mother’s head and
carried it about in a bag.
The man, who was
diagnosed autistic as an eight-
year-old, is provided with a
sparse room on a ward where
even the number of clothes
he can have is restricted for
security purposes. Hospital
staff escort him at all times
where he has access to a “dayHolly Wells and Jessica
Chapman in Soham,
Cambridgeshire, in 2002].
How can that be right?”
Her son has been in
hospitals since the age of 15.
He was sectioned after
refusing to eat and having
lost the ability to make
decisions about his life.
Rampton is his fifth hospital.
In 2020, an independent
assessment recommended a
“low secure setting” that
could specialise in providing
“autism-focused
interventions” to reduce
“environmental and
psychological triggers” for
his behaviour.
NHS policy accepts that
patients who are autistic or
have learning disabilities do
poorly as long-term
inpatients in hospitals which,
in many cases, can worsen
their behaviour.
Robert Buckland QC, the
former justice secretary,
whose daughter Millie, 19, is
autistic, said: “I remember
going to Rampton. To think a
young man is being held
there who has committed no
criminal offence to be there is
horrifying. I had no idea this
was happening, and it seems
well out of date to me.
“This is not acceptable for
somebody who has done no
wrong. Having learning
disabilities and being autistic
is part of who he is. But it is
being treated like a mental
health condition.”
Alison has requested for
her son an independent care
and treatment review, which
should provide an impartial
assessment of his case. She
would like him to be cared for
in a home supported by a
team, which can cost less
than £2,000 a week,
depending on the package, a
considerable saving on the
current cost of his care at
Rampton.
But experts warn of a lack
of the right care. Limited
housing provision, problems
hiring specialist staff, and
local authorities failing to
provide funding, lead to
patients being sent to
hospitals and not coming out.
Kari Gerstheimer, chief
executive of Access Social
Care, said that perverse
financial incentives were also
a factor, since councils were
reluctant to pay for
community care. “The longer
social services can avoid
paying anything for their
support, the better for them,”
she said. “That has to end.”
Adele Fox, deputy director
of forensic services at
Rampton, said that patients
who had committed no
crimes but were autistic or
had learning disabilities were
there because of dangers they
might present to the public.
“Our aim is always to move
people to environments with
fewer restrictions as soon as
is possible,” she said.David Collins
Northern Editorcentre” or the gym, facilities
also used by dangerous
convicted criminals.
Official figures from NHS
Digital show the man is one of
20 people who are autistic or
have learning disabilities
being held in maximum-
security hospitals who have
committed no crime.
His placement at
Rampton, which is run by the
NHS, costs the taxpayer an
estimated £10,000 a week,
according to the family’s legal
team at the Access Social
Care charity. Phone calls to
family members are
monitored and recorded by
hospital staff.
His mother, Alison, 60,
from Worksop, said: “My son
is basically treated like a
prisoner. The entire place is
run like a prison. Even the
staff ’s uniforms make them
look like prison guards.
“He’s locked up with the
worst killers, paedophiles
and rapists in the country.
I’m constantly terrified for
his safety. He shouldn’t be in
there. He’s committed no
crime. He’s autistic and has
learning disabilities yet he
gets held in the same place as
people like Ian Huntley [who
murdered the schoolgirls