A swimming Pool for Bourne End

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE WORLD

To Whom It May Concern
Dear Sir/Madam
BEJSC – Application for Grant or Donation to Project Thunderbirds

I write to you to introduce our ambitious project and to ask that you would be kind enough to consider making a grant towards this.

Who are we?
A registered charity, run by volunteers, Bourne End Junior Sports Club has provided sports and recreation for children and young people since its foundation in 1970. The club’s work was expanded in 1982 with the opening of the New Road Sports Hall, and further extended with the addition of facilities including a climbing wall and a club room.
This has led to an extensively used, multi-sport centre, an asset for the local community and our club members. The Club is entirely self-funding receiving no grants on a regular basis and has seen thousands of children pass through the doors since those early beginnings; we are now onto the third generation of youngsters.

Please feel free to have a roam around our website www.bejsc.co.uk.

Project Thunderbirds
Project Thunderbirds is an ambitious plan to build a state-of-the-art swimming pool complex and to create a facility that combines inclusive swimming and community outreach in an eco-friendly building. The primary goal of the project is to achieve a 100% swimming ability within a 5 mile radius of the pool. This will partially be achieved by working with schools, charities and societies to expand our reach to those with limited access to swimming.

This is a project that partners BEJSC and Neil Bailey Swimming, both with a demand that exceeds the current area’s supply. BEJSC runs a thriving Swimming Section that currently relies upon pools rented in towns in a 5 to 7 mile radius. Adding to these restraints are a lack of regular public transport and a push to anti-social times due to timetabling alongside larger clubs. A local pool would enable membership to increase due to both accessible usage times and a facility within the community. The facility will enhance the provision and aim of the Sports Club and open a new chapter for the organisation’s 50 year history.

Neil Bailey Swimming is a flourishing swim school that works closely with local schools, teaching over 600 children a week. A new facility would see, at least, a two-fold increase of usage for this swim school. Part of Neil Bailey Swimming’s focus is to create an inclusive setting so they can teach swimming to whoever needs it, as well as an expansion of adult teaching. A new, fully accessible pool will be able to meet the needs of children in the area with special needs, learning disabilities and physical disabilities. Having learned to swim children will graduate to the BEJSC Swimming Section to participate in an ongoing regular way in a friendly, competitive atmosphere building sporting relationships within a safe community environment.
This facility combines Artificial Intelligence (to enhance and focus inclusive use of the pool) and energy neutrality (a must for any project of this nature) across two pools. There will be a 25 metre pool with 6 lanes, plus a 10 metre pool of 4 lanes, with a thermal range 28-30°C. The 10 metre pool will have a variable depth of 1-2 metres for teaching to swim and a moving water system for training in stroke improvement.
There are few proposed facilities in the country that approach our deficit of high-quality, community-focused swimming pools with the degree of ambition that Project Thunderbirds does. Increasing access to swimming has brought BEJSC and Neil Bailey Swimming to create a fully-accessible, carbon neutral resource for all.

• Please see Appendix 1 for details and artists impression of the pool building

Project Thunderbirds timescale and costs
A 3 year project, pre-planning has been submitted to Wycombe District Council. It will be built next to the Sports Hall which is situated on Buckinghamshire Council (BC) land leased to BEJSC on a peppercorn rent. BC are currently drawing up a new lease to enable the use of the land required. The pool will enhance the provision for the adjacent school which already has extensive day-time use of the Sports Hall. Careful design heavily influenced by environmental considerations will increase their parking spaces, minimise its visual and ecological impact whilst allowing the creation of more teaching space.

Initial phase of the project is estimated to cost £100,000. This will take the project through planning, traffic & ecological surveys, detailed architectural & structural plans, and the preparation of tender documents. The support needed from authorities such as yourself is absolutely crucial to the success of the project. It is for that reason that we are reaching out to you, and particularly when the charity sector is under so much pressure to deliver for its local communities.

Construction phase is estimated to cost £3million.

• Please see Appendix 2 for details of costs.
• Please see Appendix 3 for planned fundraising.

BEJSC History of Development
Over the 50 years volunteers and Trustees have raised huge sums of money to develop the Club from its humble beginnings into the highly respected charitable organisation it is today.

• Please see Appendix 4 for BEJSC fundraising over 50 years.
• Please see Appendix 5 for comments from supporters

BEJSC has 10 Directors/Trustees several of whom have been with the Club for many years; 5 are former members. Together the current Trustees have contributed over 238 years of service to the Club. All feel passionately about maintaining the viability of this unique, successful and thriving organisation. If you require any further information please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours faithfully and thank you for any help or contribution you can make. It will make a difference to children’s lives.

BEJSC Trustees, Volunteers & Members