Why not cut some QUANGOs instead? (From Bucks Free Press)

Why not cut some QUANGOs instead?

2:58pm Thursday 27th May 2010 in

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I TOOK a stroll in the sunshine to High Wycombe’s Rye park on Sunday – and thought I’d either gone back in time or that the council had done a secret U-turn.

For a mad moment, I thought Holywell Mead open air swimming pool had reopened. All the evidence was there for it. First, there was a sign at the back of the park directing the public to Holywell Mead, and then I saw loads of young people dressed for a swim.

There were groups of girls in bikini tops and lads with their shirts off. The Rye was swarming with people desperate to make the most of the heatwave.

So it stood to sense that the council had somehow reopened the pool to make hay while the sun shone.

But as I reached the doors of the pool, I realised it was all a mirage and that I must be suffering from sunstroke because it was, to paraphrase Monty Python, a dead swimming pool.

This district council appears not for turning on Holywell Mead, and anyone who tries protesting might as well be told to go and jump in the lake.

You cannot blame the council for trying to save money and there is a decent argument that Holywell was under-used. Councillors who made the decision may also be buoyed by the fact the national Government is now following their lead and making huge cuts to fight the deficit.

But, for me, it all comes back to the fact Holywell Mead is a public amenity which isn’t there to turn a profit; it exists to meet a need for open air swimming in Wycombe. So can’t the council copy the Government’s example then and find some QUANGOs instead to cut, rather than our public pool?