THE Lenton Centre Swimming Baths was originally owned by Nottingham City Council and half of the building – mainly meeting rooms – was managed by the Lenton Community Association.

Nottingham City Council decided to close the pool, gym and reception area in 2004 as part of a series of cuts to save money.

The council sold the building for £10 to The Lenton Community Association, which set up the Lenton Centre as a social enterprise with charitable status in 2006.

The Lenton Centre recruited a board of trustees of trustees and with their experience, drive and enthusiasm they drove the business forward.

Today we are nearly entirely self sufficient and generate money through the swimming pool, gym use and office hire, as well as renting rooms for parties, classes and counselling.

Nottingham City Council gives us a small grant each year to assist us in our running costs as our utility bills are our highest expense – not wages, like most businesses, as we rely on mainly part-time staff and volunteers.

Some of the building had been neglected over the years and, as the swimming pool is heated by steam, the pipes and boiler require constant maintenance.

We have been know to patch up leaks with bits of hosepipe and a jubilee clip!

As soon as we generate income it is spent on redecoration, maintenance, pool chemicals, furniture... the list goes on.

We do like to think of ourselves as a close-knit team who try to develop projects for the centre on a budget.

One of our team designed a gym login programme so we could manage the numbers of customers through the doors, then he downloaded a computerised till and adapted it to suit our needs at a fraction of the normal costs – and we don't have to pay licence fees.

Staff regularly paint and do bits of structural maintenance as we try to make the building as cosy and modern as we can without spending any money.

The Quackers Swim School operates from the Lenton Centre seven days a week, with children from all parts of Nottingham attending.

Several schools have their swimming classes here and although the building may look a little old fashioned, the feedback we have had from the schools as regards standard of tuition has been excellent.

We have some well-attended fitness classes like zumba, yoga and aquarobics on in an evening and the West Area Project – an adult group with learning difficulties – has its base here now and its numbers are growing steadily too.

We have a Children and Young Persons Youth Project which runs activities for children including healthy eating, sports, singing and drama, and holiday fun.

My role is to generate as much income as possible and by whatever means – whether that's hiring the pool for a baptism, selling the halls for parties, or ensuring we have enough crisps and chocolate to sell.

We were even were used as a film set in Oranges And Sunshine, directed by Jim Loach and starring Emily Watson and Hugo Weaving.

It was set in 1986, so they didn't even need to bring in many props for that retro feel!

Filming lasted a full day and it was chaos as we tried to run everything as normal as we couldn't afford to cancel anything.

The local community support officer sealed off the road and directed traffic and it was all very exciting!