Council officers recommend Byrne Avenue baths be sold off and call community bid’s finances “inadequate”

Nov 3 2010 by Matt Hurst, Bromborough and Bebington News

COUNCIL chiefs recommend Byrne Avenue baths be sold on the open market and a bid for community control be rejected.

Over the last 18 months, Byrne Avenue Community Trust (BACT) has been locked in negotiations with council bosses from asset management, housing and regeneration and sports and recreation departments, to convince them of its plans to bring the closed Rock Ferry leisure centre back to life.

But in a report to Cabinet, to be debated tomorrow, officers say there are “significant doubts” over BACT’s estimated cost of repairs, that financial forecasts are “inadequate” and its submission is “particularly unsatisfactory in terms of sustainability of the project and access to finance”.

BACT’s assessment is based on professional advice which estimates the cost of repairs at around £750,000, over three years.

And the trust’s John Fennah, who tabled the bid to council, says the recommendation is “a joke” and accused officers of being “negative, negative, negative” from day one, claiming he and associates were treated like “a wart on their hand”.

The proposal would see the work carried out in two stages.

The first, costing £350,000 would provide “immediate repairs” to allow the facility to reopen within nine months, while the second phase, at a cost of £400,000, would see the hall side of the building and upstairs rooms refurbished, alongside a renewal of leisure equipment.

But council officers say they fear the “expenditure actually required is likely to increase substantially” and put the final repair bill at closer to £1million.

BACT says a number of organisations and individuals have showed interest in funding the venture, but none will confirm until the building is in BACT’s hands.

John Fennah told the News: “The council has been absolutely negative from day one.

“The first day we met them we felt we were like a wart on their hand and they were trying to get rid of us, it’s been negative, negative, negative.”

BACT wants the council to pay the first £350,000 from the Community Fund, a calculation based on the authority’s cumulative costs of maintenance and demolition without BACT’s proposal.

And with the new Conservative led council trumping David Cameron’s Big Society notion, John Fennah says any other outcome would be “farcical”.

He said: “If they’re not going to take five business people seriously, if they’re not going to look at people like that, on behalf of the community, they’re not going to transfer anything.

“They are risk averse to the point of distraction.”

The proposal will be debated by Wirral Council’s cabinet tomorrow evening