Portishead open-air pool owners hold party to celebrate campaign win

Campaigners who battled to keep Portishead's Open Air Pool open are staging a party to commemorate their success.

The "We've Saved The Pool Party" will take place on Saturday at Somerset Hall in the High Street, at 8pm.

More than 200 tickets for the celebration are available and residents can go along and toast their success.

The Post revealed on Saturday that the pool had been saved after a hard-fought campaign by led by members of the community and backed by this newspaper.

Organiser Pat Gardener said: "It is fantastic that the pool has been saved.

"Everyone in the town has said 'they can't shut the pool, we won't let them' and I think without us forming a trust I think it would have closed.

"I think they would have got the bulldozers in and it would have been flattened straight after Christmas.

"We are so proud of the Post and what it has done for us.

"It is our local paper and it stuck up for us.

"We are hoping to get the keys for the pool this weekend.

"I would love to stand there at the party on the stage on Saturday night and say 'look what I have, I've got the keys'.

"It is going to be an enjoyable evening, there are no dress restrictions.

"Now we have won there is a lot of hard work we have got to do and we are already going around businesses in the town to see if we can get some help."

North Somerset Council has agreed a lease with the Portishead Pool Community Trust to run the pool for the next 12 months.

Final tweaks are being made to the agreement and the pool will open under the management of the trust for the summer 2009 season on May 23.

It will be filled thanks to the help of Bristol Water which has agreed to donate £500 – the cost of filling the pool.

The lease followed a successful Save The Open-air Pool (STOP) campaign, which has brought the town together to fight against the original proposals to close the popular seafront attraction.

Tickets for the pool party can be bought at Nortech Computers in the High Street, Palomares hair salon in West Hill or they can be reserved and paid for on the door.

For more information call 0786 637 6819 or 01275 845324.