Sites at Armadale, Broxburn and Livingston Xcite swimming pools have been approved as being surplus to requirements by the local authority.

In June, the council agreed to West Lothian Leisure’s request for consent to close the three sites from 31 August. West Lothian Leisure confirmed that these three facilities make a significant financial loss and that they could no longer afford to operate them. In addition to the running costs, each of the three pools would require significant sums of capital (one off) expenditure to ensure they were able to operate in the short term. However, no funding is available.

By formally declaring a property surplus to requirements, the council confirms that the property is no longer required for the delivery of council services.

A report to the Council Executive this week also agreed that Armadale Swimming Pool should be confirmed as being common good property. Statutory provisions apply to common good property and, in accordance with those provisions, the council will begin a statutory eight week community consultation on the proposed disposal of Armadale pool. The Livingston and Broxburn pools are not common good property and these will be marketed in line with the council’s Surplus Property Procedures. The Broxburn and Livingston pools will be advertised for sale on the open market and any offers to purchase and any expressions of interest from the community will be invited to a closing date. The marketing period will run for a period of eight weeks.

Community Asset Transfer is available to community bodies who are interested in taking over public land and property and council officers will provide assistance to any community group seeking to explore this avenue. Successful asset transfer requests typically provide evidence of significant preparatory work having been undertaken at the pre-application stage and would include evidence of community engagement that establishes need and community buy-in for the proposed project, a detailed business plan that demonstrates financial viability and sustainability, along with evidence that the community body has the capacity and skill-sets necessary to deliver and sustain the project going forward.

Leader of the Council, Lawrence Fitzpatrick said: “The council must effectively manage its property assets and vacant properties present a risk of dereliction and require continual upkeep. It is therefore essential that the sites are declared surplus to requirements to allow council officers to market the sites. The marketing period allows any interested parties to respond by the closing date.”

A number of pavilions in West Lothian will be disposed of by the council.

The council owns 54 pavilions at various locations across West Lothian. 37 of those pavilions are currently leased out to a range of local community clubs and organisations, who successfully manage the pavilions and operate them on a day-to-day basis. Those 37 pavilions are unaffected.

However, earlier this year, community clubs, third sector organisations and other interested parties were invited to find out more about leasing the remaining 17 pavilions located across West Lothian, which would potentially close by 31 March 2024 if leases were not in place. The usage figures for these pavilions was analysed and confirmed as being very low in many cases.

It has been agreed by the Council Executive that nine pavilions are no longer required and that they should be disposed of, either by demolishing the buildings or marketed for commercial sale or lease. In the majority of instances, there has been no expressions of interest received from interested parties looking to lease the pavilions and/or the properties are in poor condition.

The pavilions that will be disposed of are:

• Holmes Park, Holmes Park Gardens, Broxburn
• Strathbrock Place, King George V Park, Uphall
• Station Road, Station Road (south of the A89), Broxburn
• Church Street, Broxburn
• Craigshill, Maree Walk
• Kettlestoun Mains, Listloaning Road, Linlithgow
• Greenrigg, Polkemmet Road
• Seafield, Redhouse Road
• Harrison Hall, Jubilee Road, Whitburn

It has also been agreed that council officers will continue discussions with individual community groups over the potential lease of the remaining eight pavilions, where expression of interest have been received and where lease discussions are progressing. These are:

• Meadowpark, Glasgow Road, Bathgate
• Uphall Station, Marrfield Terrace
• Limefield Football Pavillion, Chapleton Drive, Polbeth
• Woodpark, Upper Bathville, Armadale
• Westrigg, Park Road, Westrigg
• Redmill, Main Street, East Whitburn
• Blaebery Park, Raeburn Crescent, Whitburn
• KGV Park Pavilion, Baillie Street, Whitburn

A further report will be brought back to a future Council Executive with an update on these discussions, including consideration of declaring these eight properties surplus to requirements if no agreement has been reached.

Leader of West Lothian Council, Lawrence Fitzpatrick said: “The majority of pavilions are leased successfully to local groups and this will continue. It is certainly our hope that a further eight pavilions will be leased by local groups in the near future. Officers have sought to find a future for all the pavilions, but it’s clear through the work carried but that there are no viable options for a small number of the pavilions.”

West Lothian Council has significant and sustained budget pressures caused by increasing costs and insufficient levels of Scottish Government grant funding. The Scottish Government provides the council with 80% of its budget and grant from the Government is less than required for the council to deliver essential local services. This results in a budget gap. The council is legally required to balance its budget - therefore the council has to reduce spending and change some local services. West Lothian Council must make savings of approximately £39.4 million with £15.5 million of savings required in 2023/24.

A number of budget saving measures have been approved which will allow the council to balance its budget. Savings measures overall will be implemented over the next five years.

Councillor Fitzpatrick added: “Across Scotland, councils are reducing some services that they previously provided due to enormous budget constraints and we are no different in West Lothian. Given the scale of the financial challenges that West Lothian Council faces, and as part of our budget strategy over the next five years, a wide range of savings measures have been approved, including the consolidation of the sports pavilions.

“The council has worked in partnership with local community groups to enable them to manage their operations at the majority of pavilions in West Lothian.

“Given the budget pressures faced by the council, and our legal obligations to obtain best value, it isn’t appropriate to continue to maintain a small number of pavilions that we know are not well used and require investment and upgrades. We need to ensure that the budget that we do have safeguards other local services and priorities.”