Lifeline for swimming pool

10:23am Friday 25th April 2008

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A LIFELINE has been thrown to the pool where hundreds of Herefordshire youngsters have learned to swim.

Shut since December and facing permanant closure, St Martin’s LEA pool in Hereford has been bouyed up by a key council committee.

The pool has long been plagued by boiler problems and structural faults. At one point it even started leaking, and talk turned to how cash-tight Herefordshire Council could afford the estimated £72,500 repair bill.

Now, the council’s children’s services scrutiny committee has said the bill should be met, as long as schools can help.

The committee heard that for the past few years the running costs of the pool have been more than its annual income from hire fees.

But members believed that the value of the pool to schools and the wider community meant it was worth exploring options to keep it open. The committee agreed to recommended to cabinet that council carries out the repairs and re-opens the pool, with user schools committing themselves for a three-year period at a charge that would cover the net costs.

Members also agreed that the finances of the pool should be reviewed to ensure it could operate within budgets. Committee chair Councillor Sally Robertson that in St Martin’s the council had a dedicated learning pool that served local schools and swimming clubs “very well.”

Since St Martin’s pool shut, HALO, the council’s leisure arm, has been providing temporary facilities for school swimming lessons.

Cabinet will examine options to re-open St Martin’s pool at a future meeting.