The chairman of the Moray Hydrotherapy Pool has insisted that their is no immediate danger of the facility closing down following the withdrawal of council support last week.
A single casting vote by a committee chairman led to Moray Council ending its £20,000 annual support for the pool, sparking fears by many users that it could pose a threat to its future operation.
The pool was opened in 2011 following a decade of local fundraising led by Arthritis sufferer May Taylor, who with many suffering similar ailments were having to travel for Hydrotherapy treatment to Dingwall.
Moray Council entered a three-year agreement to provide £20,000 annually to the facility, however, when that came to an end this year a proposal at the children and young people’s services committee that it continue for at least a further year was rejected.
The decision was made on the casting vote of committee chair Councillor Anne Skene.
Now Highlands and Islands MSP Rhoda Grant has entered the row, saying that she will write to the chief executive of Moray Council asking that the funding be continued.
She said: “Many people benefit from this facility – I understand that it costs around £90,000 to run each year and the board rely on funding to meet their costs.”
However, Chris Combe, the chair of the pool’s board of trustees, has said he is confident that the pool had sufficient funding in place to remain open for at least two years.