Tuesday November 10th 2026
Sports centres and swimming pools in East Lothian could be at risk of council reform goes ahead, it has been warned
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Marie Sharp
Swimming pools and leisure centres will all be at risk if Scottish Government plans to reform public services go ahead, East Lothian Council’s leader has warned.
Councillor Norman Hampshire hit out at proposals announced by the First Minister to replace Scotland’s 32 local authorities with ten new regional bodies and more than 120 community groups.
John Swinney presented proposals for public services reform to the Scottish Parliament in September this year after raising concerns that some councils are too small to be strategic and some are too big to be local.
In his five year plan for his government, Mr Swinney said public service reform would ensure “every pound of investment is focused on frontline delivery” and that there are the “right staff in the right roles to deliver real change”.
However, speaking as the plans for reform made their first appearance on the council’s corporate risk register , Councillors Hampshire said it was effectively “the abolition of this council”.
He told a meeting of the council’s Labour administration cabinet: “East Lothian Council does not exist in that structure and that will have a devastating effect on the people here.
“East Lothian is quite fortunate that we have been able to deliver high quality services , things like in our leisure services every single community in East Lothian has its own leisure facility – that won’t happen in a regional set up.
“We have more swimming pool facilities here in East Lothian than in the whole of Edinburgh, that won’t happen if we are under a regional system.
“Communities will lose their facilities, that is almost a guarantee.”
Councillor Hampshire told colleagues the council needed to be prepared to put forward a strong case for the retention of its current structure and he warned against allowing those in Edinburgh to make decisions for surrounding communities.
He said: “It is a massive challenge for this council and we need to be putting the strongest case possible and identifying the risks.
“There are people sitting up in Edinburgh coming up with ideas of how they think they can run services, they don’t have a clue. They are not at the front line and I can tell them they will not deliver it by moving public services to a regional set up.”
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