4:00pm Friday 23rd October 2009
By Oliver Evans
A STUDENT has posted a video on YouTube of last week's stormy meeting over the closure of Holywell Mead swimming pool.
The film was put on the video sharing website this week, and captured scenes from the meeting as angry residents protested about the closure of the outdoor pool on The Rye in High Wycombe. Counci leaders were present at the meeting and defended the decision to shut the 52-year-old pool to save money. At one stage, council leader Lesley Clarke was seen walking off the stage as the meeting heated up. A member of the audience had previously challenged her assertion that a group of residents' plan to keep the pool open was “sadly wanting”. The man said the council’s plan was also wanting.
The film by an Amersham & Wycombe College student captures the tense atmosphere at the meeting, at the Environment Centre by the pool, on Tuesday last week.
Deputy council leader Tony Green this week told the Bucks Free Press that the pool would not re-open under options for the future of the site to go out to public consultation “fairly soon”.
It could be filled in, he said, but declined to be drawn on specific proposals. The council closed the pool, which opened in the summer only, in February to save £66,000 a year.
Cllr Green said: “They are looking at various innovative uses. I will be very much aimed at young people.”
He added: “We want something that can be used all year round.”
Click the link below for more stories about the pool.
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