No pool design until after high school is built

Plans for the new high school include a sports block with a swimming pool

Plans for a new swimming pool in the south of the island will only move forward after a new high school has been built, the Manx parliament has been told.

Education, Sport and Culture Minister Daphne Caine said the sports block at Castle Rushen High School would not be progressed separately from the main building.

Separate capital funding for the development would "enable the building of the new school, which is phase one of the project," Ms Caine told members.

During a debate over regional sports hubs, the minister also confirmed the government would continue to support three regional swimming pools until March 2026 "should it be required".

'Thrown in the towel'

During the debate several politicians asked for clarity over the future of the Southern Swimming Pool in Castletown, which had looked set to close earlier this year because of funding issues.

The debate saw Tynwald receive both the original report on and an update on the affordability of regional pools being part of regional sports hubs and an update to it.

An amendment by Juan Watterson SHK saw members agree that previously supported measures to produce a costed plan to develop hubs had not been completed.

He told members he was "simply" asking them to restate their previous intentions.

Michelle Haywood MHK said that neither report had moved the situation forward and the government appeared to have "thrown in the towel" by not fulfilling the previous commitment, which she said made "financial and governance sense to enact".

Former Education Minister Julie Edge, who stressed the decision to close the southern pool had been taken by the Council of Ministers rather than the department, criticised what she said was government spending a "pot of magic money tree money".

However, Mrs Caine said that after the replacement school had been built, the design of the sports facility and pool would be costed and funding would "need to be sought", something her department was liaising with the Treasury over.

She added that once a design team was formed, the department would engage with stakeholders to begin designing a "sports facility and pool" as part of the new school.