Nikki Richardson and The Lido
Published Winter 2021, by Gill Farquharson
NIKKI Richardson exudes positivity. Whether talking about learning sign language to better communicate with her deaf students or describing the launch of the dementia friendly Elevenses club at the Lido, Nikki radiates enthusiasm. ‘Don’t tell me about something if you don’t want it done!’ is the way she sums up her can- do attitude and it’s one she needs in spades as Manager of the Arundel Lido right now.
Nikki has lived in Arundel since 2014 when she and her wife, Hannah, decided to find somewhere equidistant between their employers. Hannah was then Vice Principal in a Special Needs Academy in Portsmouth and Nikki was Manager of the Disability Development Department of Albion in the Community, Brighton & Hove Albion Charity arm. In 2016 when Nikki successfully applied for the role of Manager at Arundel Lido, her commute shortened even further!
Leaving school at 18 with three A levels, Nikki knew she wanted to become a Sports Coach. She was herself a basketball player at County level, her career only stopping short due to injury although in true Nikki fashion that led to her becoming a coach for the team- the Storrington Slammers Ladies. Andi Dunstan, a friend who was then running Chanctonbury Leisure Centre, asked her to get involved with some of their work with local schools, planning and delivering multi-sport sessions within mainstream primary schools.
My qualifications are ridiculous – I have coaching qualifications in just about every sport you can think of – there isn’t a sport I can’t deliver.
Nikki ‘s qualifications in Sports Coaching reflect her work ethic and application and include cycling, cricket, rugby, golf and extensive Football Association awards at all levels including the UEFA B (Level 3) equivalent to a Diploma, of which at the time there were less than 100 female coaches in the country with that qualification. ‘My qualifications are ridiculous – I have coaching qualifications in just about every sport you can think of – there isn’t a sport I can’t deliver. Most of these are at least a level 2 (the Head Coach level) and my level 3 in football allows me to tutor other coaches. I wrote my own disability awareness course to be able to go out and train other coaches and my Level 2 in sign language is obviously very useful for communication and training people.’
Her disability involvement started when she was headhunted to join Brighton Football Club’s charity arm Albion in the Community in 2000. She was delivering mainstream after school sessions, working within special schools during curriculum work and after school and weekend clubs across the then 42 special clubs in Sussex. Her workaholic tendencies are matched by the enthusiasm she has for her players. ‘The reward you get when you see people’s faces when you’ve really made a difference is wonderful. I’ve coached some children from 4 years old who were really struggling in mainstream schools, being laughed at because of their disabilities and I’m still in contact with them now! They stayed with me all the way through till I left in 2016 and the difference you’ve made to them and their families is amazing. I’ve had 10 disabled players play for England which is incredible,’ something of which she is quite rightly very proud.
Despite swimming being the one sport Nikki did not include in her list, when she saw the job at the Lido she successfully applied for it. Being Nikki she quickly passed all the necessary Lifeguard and Pool Plant qualifications. She loves her job even enjoying the winter when she gets to do all sorts of things outdoors – during lockdown she painted all the perimeter fences and her practical skills are put to good use. ‘I like variety- I don’t want to just do a 9 to 5 job or just repeat the same things every day’.
Living in Arundel is both a positive and a negative she admits. Home life is very busy as Hannah and she have two children aged 2 and 4. There is also the adorable DJ, a very important member of the family who is gorgeous, black, working cocker spaniel who is also trained, in his case as a PAT (Pets As Therapy) dog. He is particularly useful at the pool on school swimming days- ‘the children are told they can talk to DJ if they are too shy to talk to the staff and it works. Everybody loves him – he’s a bit of a celebrity!’
Initially her aim was to increase the season from the 18 weeks and to have something all year round by introducing new elements. ‘’Saturday Circuits’ for example which runs all year round. I also do off site training during the winter which brings in extra income. I run Teacher Training at Chichester University on Inclusion Modules and I go into schools and help them with their disability training.’ Nikki also manages a large staff- ‘One of the hardest things in Leisure is that you’re always employing very young people without a great deal of life experience so you have to teach them so much. Over the last two years many have had to step up and become Team Leaders and take responsibility for things like locking up the site, handling complaints, balancing the money – so training them is very important.’ Staff are only around for the summer season and there are usually up to 50 paid employees. 32 of them are qualified Lifeguards for whom Nikki has to organise regular training in order to maintain their qualification.
The season this year was 26 weeks as Nikki opened as soon as outdoor pools could, which meant she got the jump on the indoor pools for whom couldn’t open till May. ‘We got the pool ready in 10 days so that we could open in April which was a huge one off bonus to the figures this year. Everything about this year has been exceptional –every swimmer has had to pay every session as we could not offer season tickets not knowing if change was on the horizon again. Normal membership is about 350-400, most of whom live in Arundel. So strangely, in some ways, Covid was a good thing for us because the entries were all pre-booked and limited which meant that, by and large, people came regardless of the weather. People liked the environment and felt totally safe. The fact that I could staff it more efficiently because I knew in advance what demand was likely to be on any given day, meant the revenue produced a better return. There are a lot of things for us to think about as a result of Covid and we’re looking at proposals for next year right now.’
Those proposals include exciting news for Arundel residents who will benefit from a reciprocal arrangement between the Lido and Chanctonbury Leisure Centre in Storrington. The Centre has a sauna, a gym, sports halls, badminton and tennis courts and a football pitch but they have no pool so the two charitable organisations are combining resources and offering a joint membership. Lido members are able to use the facilities at Chanctonbury Leisure Centre for Members Day Prices and we also offer the same in return. (see the ad on page 8 for more details.)
‘Plans for a gym in Arundel are very tricky.’ Nikki explains ‘While the need and demand are there, the financial and planning solutions are complicated. Sport England want a modular solution and could build it very quickly but that doesn’t fit with the elaborate plans that have been drawn up to ensure we are in keeping with ‘Arundel’.
But nothing stops Nikki. She has experimented with a marquee in the grounds of the Lido to gauge demand for an additional space which has proved a great success, notably with the launch of the Elevenses dementia friendly event. Arundel has long struggled with dementia friendly initiatives but the success of Elevenses at the Lido has taken even Nikki by surprise. ‘Jackie Burzio, the Community Pioneer from the Co-op, and I attended a meeting organised to see if something could be done to make Arundel a more dementia friendly town and so we took on the challenge!’ They were already involved in planning it before Covid hit and, after the lockdowns there is even more need for people to be able to meet and talk to others. It launched on 17th May and has been a great success. Nikki knows exactly why- ‘It’s every Monday, it’s a flat, accessible space, it has a car park, it’s free and it offers music, special events, painting materials, tea and coffee and 28 people turned up to the first one’! There is now a plan of monthly events, a newsletter, a structure to each months sessions and Age UK want to get involved. They have gained accreditation through Arun as the first dementia friendly business in Arundel but as a result the Post Office, Lulamaes, Pallant and Martin Steel Opticians are joining, but we still want more. ‘We’re trying to make Arundel Lido a community hub – launching Walk This Way a walking exercise and games session and an Elevenses choir are all part of the plans.’ She is hoping for a Carol Concert at Christmas building on the success of a Revival meeting that 56 people attended dressed in vintage clothes. The Town Council, the Post Office and the Co-op have all donated money towards this brilliant initiative.
Covid has hit the Lido hard though – ‘If we had another Covid season we wouldn’t survive. I don’t think people realise what we cover up. When it comes to running a swimming pool everything is a big bill – just to heat the pools and put the necessary chemicals in is about £1000 per week; staff is a minimum of three or four people on site when we open’. Nikki does whatever she can to reduce the bills including painting and DIY herself but a large maintenance budget is still needed.
Nikki recognises the importance of creating revenue in areas other than just entry to the pool. ‘School Swimming lessons have to be affordable but the schools and parents don’t have a great deal of money so we keep our prices at £3.00 per child to swim per session.’ This year Nikki managed to secure £14,000 from the Swim Teachers Association which paid for 400 children to have free swimming lessons. ‘Unfortunately they have no funds for next year so the schools will need to pay. This year we covered years 1 to 6 and had schools from other areas too. We also had a record number of one to one lessons this year because of the way we could schedule the pool use and let the staff do the obligatory Covid clean schedule while the one to one’s were happening in the pool.’
Covid posed all sorts of challenges – not least that Swim England’s guidance was constantly changing and there was no notice of that ‘so you literally had to just keep reading the same things repeatedly until you spotted a difference!’ Swim England implemented restrictions to the activities starting with only lane swims or instructor led activities. When we were allowed to go to ‘normal’ opening we restricted the numbers on site across both pools and it seemed to work really well. Both pools are heated during the summer but the cold swims in the winter in big pool are just that – cold!’ The pool has had to close now though because they can’t get any chlorine at the moment and their stocks have run out. Nikki is now ‘manually dosing the pool with granules but you can’t swim when that’s done.’ Festive swims were given the go ahead in the October Board meeting, but they will be pre booked and sessions not released until the 13th December in case we have to follow any lock downs’.
The challenges are enormous right now. ‘There is a real need for refurbishment of the pool currently – the water level keeps dropping in the big pool because of a leak that has been investigated for 6 years and they simply can’t find the source of the problem – basically it needs to be relined but that is a massive cost. The baby pool also needs relining, and at a cost of £6500, it has been put into the work programme for this year. The filter needs refurbishing at a cost of approximately £25,000, and even the lane ropes cost £1000 each! Basically everything here is 21 years old and needs replacing even the roof on the office had to be repaired. In a masterly piece of understatement she adds ‘It’s all a bit tricky – you have to decide what’s urgent and needs to be done and what can wait.’
The most important financial contribution to the Lido comes from its car park ‘it is what keeps the Lido afloat. If we didn’t have that we would not be here and, of course, in the last year it’s been one of the biggest hits we’ve had.’ The Lido lease the car park from Arun District Council, who then monitor it and manage the machine for which the Lido pay a management fee. Any parking revenue then goes to the Lido. But the maintenance of the car park is due to be done and that is at the Lido’s expense and an estimated £10,500. As a result of last year’s low level of use the management have had to dip into the reserves to survive. Nikki predicts quite simply ‘If we have another Covid season or bad car park revenue year like last year we will not survive and people need to know that.’
The challenges are huge but one thing is certain – if there is a way through the problems, Nikki Richardson will find it.
Cover photo by Nigel Cull