A maritime training firm and a community organisation launched a project to reopen a disused Liverpool swimming pool and housing provider Livv has provided vital funding. Tony McDonough reports
Housing provider Livv Housing Group has provided £130,000 of funding to bring a disused swimming pool in Liverpool back into use.
Via its Livv Investment subsidiary, the affordable homes outfit, backed a project spearheaded by training firm Seascope and Fazakerley Community Federation, to restore the pool which had not been used since 2010.
It is adjacent to the Clock Tower development which is the home of Seascope Maritime Training, a training provider that develops and delivers standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW) for seafarers, and MCA (Maritime and Coastguard Agency) training courses.
Seascope and the community federation set up a new social enterprise, STEPZ (Strategy and Training to Eradicate all Poverty to Zero) CIC, to bring it back into use for maritime training and for the local community.
Livv Investment provided a loan of £115,000 along with a grant of £15,000 to refurbish the swimming pool to bring it back into use. This enabled Seascope to develop new training courses for the Global Wind Organisation (GWO) Green Energy sector.
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And the refurbished swimming pool is now also available to schools, local swimming clubs and members of the community, when not being used for training. It also allowed Seascope to offer STCW Basic Safety Training to jobseekers and those in receipt of Universal Credit to enable them to apply for employment in the sector.
They are also running a pilot ‘Future Skills’ project in conjunction with Livv Housing Group to provide funded maritime training for customers to open up employment prospects in the maritime sector.
Howard Roberts, executive director, finance and performance at Livv Housing Group, which has 14,000 homes across Liverpool city region, said: “Swimming pools are an important hub for community life, helping people of all ages lead healthier, happier lives but we are seeing too many fall into disrepair and not be replaced.
“We are delighted to have been able to contribute towards reopening this pool with Seascope which is not only enabling them to expand their important training courses and offer support for job seekers but also brings it back into community use after more than ten years.”
Tom Hincks, business development manager at Seascope, added: “Opening up the swimming pool has made a huge difference to the training course we can offer here and we are thrilled that it can also operate as a place for the local community to get together, have fun and stay healthy.”