By Richard Whitehouse/LDR

Protesters will gather at New County Hall on Wednesday morning to urge Cornwall Council's Cabinet to hand over Ships and Castles Leisure Centre to the community to run instead of selling the site for possible redevelopment.

The Falmouth centre closed in March after the council decided to decommission the Falmouth building after GLL, which operates leisure centres owned by the council, said it could no longer afford to run the centre, along with several others in Cornwall. That announcement led to an outpouring of support from the community for the centre to remain open.

A community interest company was established which submitted a bid to the council to take on the centre but this was dismissed by the council. Falmouth Town Council has also been working with community groups to see if they could take on the centre which includes the only public swimming pool for the Falmouth and Penryn area.

At Wednesday's Cabinet meeting councillors will be asked to approve a recommendation that Ships and Castles should be sold – along with a large swathe of land around the centre. Some locals have expressed surprise about the extent of the land that could be sold and there are fears that it could go to a developer for luxury housing or a hotel.

However, the Cabinet recommendations also allow six months of devolution discussions about Ships and Castles so that the town council and any other organisations can draw up formal bids to take on the centre.

In addition, the Cabinet report states that if the site is sold then £2million from that sale should be ringfenced to help fund "a new fit for purpose leisure facility". It states that this would be subject to a viable business case being submitted.

Local people wanting to reopen the leisure centre and protect the headland from development are planning to attend New County Hall in Truro on Wednesday ahead of the Cabinet meeting. They say that they want to "positively help to influence the future of Cornwall".

The campaigners have also received support from a number of community groups which used Ships and Castles before it closed. This week Gyllyngvase Surf Lifesaving Club explained why the centre is important to them.

They explained that their volunteers start from an early age with their Nippers club for children aged over eight, who have to be able to swim 25m before they can get involved.

The club said: "The closure of Ships and Castles is already affecting our Nippers, as children without sufficient pool time do not have the confidence to transition to sea-based training, and consequently we are seeing a higher number of Nippers drop out.

"We expect an ongoing impact as younger children will not have access to swimming lessons and water time needed to prepare for joining the club; surf lifesaving will be less accessible to those with the least resources.

"The consequences for our community will be ongoing and complex. In the short term, fewer children will have the skills and confidence to benefit from our programmes, and safely enjoy our beautiful coastline. In the long term, there will be a reduction in the number of lifeguards on our beaches; both paid professionals and off-duty volunteers."

And a local headteacher has also given their support to get the pool reopened, stating: "As a local primary headteacher and keen swimmer, surf lifesaver, swimming teacher and beach lifeguard, I am so desperately worried about the fact children in the local area have no access to any indoor swimming facilities.

"Since the start of the pandemic, schools have struggled to gain access to pools and now things have opened up again we can't find swimming pools with available pool time for school use. So not only has the accessibility become more difficult, those who were learning have not progressed as there is nowhere to swim. With one less pool now it is even trickier.

"We live in a county almost entirely surrounded by water and we are failing our children by not being able to offer tuition in water safety skills and the opportunity to learn to swim. Despite living where we do, this is a basic life-saving skill that everyone should have the right to. The national curriculum requires all children to be able to swim a distance of 25m, swim a range of strokes effectively and perform self-rescue techniques. How can we fulfil this requirement when we don't have access to swimming pools to do this? Our children and schools deserve better.

"Ships and castles might not be the most ideal pool but it is a pool and a pool that is perfect for learning to swim and water confidence as well as a whole host of other water-based activities and fun time. My own children learned to swim there and they are the lucky ones as they are now confident and competent swimmers and surf lifesavers, enjoying water sports that they have developed a passion for. What a shame that the children in our care now don't have the same opportunities on offer to them."

Cornwall Council's Cabinet will meet at 10am on Wednesday (July 20th) at New County Hall to decide whether to dispose of Ships and Castles and the land around it.