St Davids swimming pool group continues fight to save facility (From Western Telegraph)

St Davids swimming pool group continues fight to save facility

8:50am Saturday 11th April 2009 in

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The fight to save St Davids swimming pool has been bolstered by the support of the local Labour party.

After Pembrokeshire County Council announced plans to close the pool, St Davids Community Pool group decided to draw up a business plan proposing to fund its maintenance.

However, members were left aggrieved at being given only two months for the plan to be submitted.

In a letter to the county council, the secretary of the Preseli Pembrokeshire Labour Party, Ken Davies, labelled the deadline ‘deplorable’.

“The Assembly has a policy of providing free swimming for senior citizens and school children,” Mr Davies said.

“If the pool closes, the residents of St Davids will not be able to take advantage of this. They will have to travel 15 miles to use pool facilities and schools in the area will lose an important facility.”

Mr Davies also asked the council to consider building an activity centre in addition to the pool, not as a replacement.

A pool group spokesman confirmed that the council had responded to the business plan with a series of questions. The group met last week to discuss a response.

A council spokesman said the council had written to the group pointing out that obligations associated with transfer of the pool needed to be ‘robustly evidenced’.

He added: “The letter makes a number of points, including the fact that an assumption by the group of £20,000 a year financial support from St Davids City Council is not available.”

He also pointed out that the group had downsized a proposed wind turbine from 900kw to just 80kw — a reduction of more than 90%.

Mark Lewis, the county council’s director of finance, said he found it difficult to see how the group could manage the pool through its proposals.

Plans to build a £1.3m sports hall, using deficit funding from the pool’s closure, were first outlined last November.

In February the community pool group said it would legal proceedings against the council, but it has since dropped the threat of a judicial review.