A motion to save Leith Waterworld has been tabled for the Full Council meeting today, Thursday giving fresh hope to Splashback campaigners.

The closing date for offers on the leisure facility at the foot of Leith Walk is set for Wednesday, February 8 but the Green Party, with the support of the Splashback campaign group and Leith Links Community Council, hope to postpone this for six months to allow time to build a business case for community ownership of the building.

Green Party Councillor, Steve Burgess said: “The decision of Council was to sell LWW, and we can’t go back on that. However, there is still a possibility of saving the pool if time was given for a community buyout.

“There are quite a few examples in Scotland of communities running pools successfully.

“I know many councillors feel uneasy about closing LWW, especially given the importance of healthy activity like swimming and particularly in less well off areas. But the majority felt LWW had to be sold to fund the RCP.

“So I’d hope that the Administration will allow time for a community bid to come forward. The council will still get its money to fund the RCP if LWW can be bought by the community.”

However, campaigners have found it difficult to pull a business case together claiming that local councillors as ‘not willing’ to help them access the information they need.

A member of the Splashback campaign group, Johnny Gailey said: "I cannot understand why councillors are not willing to back their constituents in getting full information that should be in the public interest. I can't understand as councillors why they do that.

“I can understand as board members of Edinburgh Leisure why they might not disclose figures, but they are there as a councillor and I don't know how to get the information we need.

"It's a brick wall we're hitting every time. It's getting our backs up because to have a credible community bid we need to work in partnership with the council.

“It's really clear that the council just want to sell this. We can't have a credible bid without the operating costs and the only route to getting those operating costs is through political pressure."

The campaigners say they are faced with a catch 22 situation as they need the Leith Waterworld data to build a credible business case, yet they have had difficulty accessing the information they need to put it together.

Councillor Deirdre Brock, culture and leisure convenor confirmed this in her statement: "I am genuinely puzzled by Johnny's response because as I understand it, officers from City Development have offered to meet with campaigners to advise them on the bidding process.

“In addition Edinburgh Leisure have also offered to share financial information on the running costs of Leith Waterworld if a community bid is submitted."

While Leith Ward Councillor Gordon Munro has said that he has provided the group with data that will help their case. He said: "I have obtained what I can for the campaign and shared operating and expenditure costs for the last 13 years with the campaign.

“I hope that this enough for them to begin the process of their own bid with a feasibility study. I am sure that once in this phase Edinburgh Leisure would help in any further detail that is needed to formulate a bid.”

In addition to concerns over the attitude of local councillors campaigners have also been disappointed by actions of senior council officials and Edinburgh Leisure.

Splashback have posted results of a series of FOI requests to their blog, including a series of email exchanges between senior council officers, Edinburgh Leisure and local councillors.

They reveal that Edinburgh Leisure did not undertake any community consultation on proposals to close the pool and also show as well as the opinion of the council's Head of Sport, Stephanie-Anne Harris – which campaigners were disappointed with.

In an email to an undisclosed recipient dated December 19 she wrote: “I don't think that splashing around in LWW will actually have that much of a positive impact on health... kids maybe active but it is a leisure/fun pool and not necessarily increasing heart rats in the same way that doing 10 lengths of a traditional 25m pool would... "

In response to this Mr Gailey said: “I think that shows a blasé attitude towards wellbeing.

"Wellbeing is not about sport. It's about space and time to share with your family. Given the recent statistics that show that about a third of the children in Leith live in poverty, that they're likely to be living in small flats and cramped conditions because that's all their parents can afford, actually having a space like Leith Waterworld locally is crucial."

"I think that sort of attitude from the Head of Sport is symptomatic of the whole attitude we're getting from council officials and councillors. Rather than working with us, they're putting up a brick wall."

Jim Scanlon, chair of Leith Links Community Council confirmed backing for the Splashback campaign. He wrote on the LLCC blog: “Leith Links Community Council agreed to offer our support to the proposal and also asked that the figures for running costs be made available to Splashback for their alternative business plan.”

Edinburgh Leisure declined to comment and Stephanie-Anne Harris was given the opportunity to respond.