By Keef Williamson
Since being established as a social enterprise in 2013, Bramley Baths has held its Annual General Meeting in the Grade II Listed building in Broad Lane.
This year, however, a bigger venue was needed because, as a result of the very successful Raise the Roof fundraising campaign, the Baths now has over 500 shareholders, all of whom are entitled to attend and vote at the meeting.
The 2025 AGM was held at Bramley Villagers Club on Tuesday, 9 September.
While waiting for the meeting to begin, attendees were invited to make a mini sculpture out of Play Dough representing what Bramley Baths means to them.
They were also entertained by the Ukulele ShapeShifters, who meet every Tuesday morning at the Baths. They performed a couple of water-themed songs, including ‘Splish Splash I Was Taking a Bath.’
The meeting got under way with outgoing Chair Nick Quin giving an overview of the agenda. Treasurer Rajeev Dewedi presented the accounts and noted that the baths has achieved a notable milestone – over £1 million turnover. On top of that the Society now has reserves of around £900,000, which are earmarked for ongoing repairs and maintenance of the 120-year-old building.
In his Chair’s Report to the meeting, Nick Quin said “[Sir] John Battle started the campaign to save the Baths many years ago with a group of people – some of whom are in this room – round the table and getting ideas.
“I don’t think any of them could have imagined that we’d be in a position where we had a million pound turnover twelve years later. It’s testament to the team running the place and it’s proof positive that we’re doing the right things.”
Chief Executive David Wilford thanked team members individually for their extraordinary work.
He mentioned the installation of 178 photo-voltaic panels now generating over 50% of the Baths’ power requirement; his visit to Westminster, and how Bramley Baths was talked about in senior political circles as a national model of how community ownership of assets can work.
He said the Raise the Roof share offering that collected £383,960 and enabled work to go ahead on replacing the roof lanterns / skylights.
Shareholders were asked to complete voting slips to approve the accounts, appoint auditors and to appoint former Leeds Rhinos rugby league player Jamie Jones-Buchanan to the board. All items were passed and Jamie becomes co-chair with Leeds Community Foundation chief executive Steph Taylor, who has served on the board for four years.
Jamie was born and bred in Bramley and knows the Baths well.
He said: “I look up at that tower, the big chimney … for me that’s a bit of a metaphor, a picture of how high you can go.
“That’s up to you, how high do you want to get, how much of an example do you want to set to the people of Leeds and the surrounding communities because you’re doing it better than anywhere I’ve ever seen before.
“Our mission at the Leeds Rhinos is to change life to the power of four, and I’ve not seen anywhere locally in the community that does it as well as [Bramley Baths] does it.”
After questions from the audience and some comments on future plans for the disused Steam Room, the meeting ended.
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