Pool campaign group launches website (From Bucks Free Press)

Pool campaign group launches website

1:37pm Wednesday 15th April 2009

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A WEBSITE has been launched by a group fighting to re-open axed Holywell Mead outdoor swimming pool.

The Holywell Mead Swimming Pool Trust campaign hopes the website will encourage residents support the bid to keep open the High Wycombe pool.

The group has put together to try and open the pool as an independent charity after Wycombe District Council axed funding last month.

It has put together a business plan which will be presented to the council at the end of the month.

This will include a proposal to open the pool all year instead of just in summer, Bucks Free Press can reveal.

To visit the website go to www.holywellmeadpool.org.uk or click here. The trust - which asks website visitors to leave messages of support – said it did not want to release further details of plan before it is given to WDC.

One message on the website reads: “With the Government so concerned about obesity in the young it seems very short-sighted to close a facility enjoyed by so many youngsters.”

The Conservative-controlled council voted to close the 52-year-old pool, by The Rye, as it said it could not justify £66,000-a-year running costs given its number of users.

It was among £1.68m worth of savings made by the council which said Government cash support is too low and other income had been hit by the recession.

Trust vice chairman Rick Kiddle, a former British triathlon champion, said: “We need people to log on to our website, see what we are about and register their support in saving this vital facility."

He said the trust was “working to create a business plan which will turn this vital facility into a viable business”.

He said: “We understand that every council in the UK is facing severe financial pressures because of the global recession, but the trust is working to overcome a global issue which is threatening local facilities.

“During recession, it is important for communities, councils and the Government to encourage innovation and new business and this is what we are trying to do, create a new business using an old facility.

“We are not standing back and just asking the council to do it for us."

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