Portishead pool campaigners to face councillors

Campaigners fighting to save Portishead Open-Air Pool from closure will go face to face with councillors at a meeting in the town tonight.

Members of the Save the Open-Air Pool (STOP) campaign will meet North Somerset Council representatives behind closed doors to discuss a report recommending the pool be permanently shut.

Their campaign – backed by the Bristol Evening Post – is gathering pace, with hundreds of townspeople signing a petition urging that the lido be kept open.

Members of the STOP campaign group were outside Waitrose and Co-operative supermarkets and in the High Street on Saturday collecting signatures. More than 2,000 people have already signed and petitions can be found at Nortech Computers, Morgan Westley and Larsen's Cafe on the High Street as well as the barbers shop at West Hill.

STOP volunteer Roger Thompson, who was collecting signatures outside Waitrose, said support had been fantastic.

"Everyone was very keen to sign the petition and all the people we spoke to, without exception, wanted to see the pool kept open.

"A lot of the people who signed the petition were from Portishead but many were also from Bristol and other neighbouring towns and villages."

The campaigners want North Somerset Council to put the pool in the hands of a trust when it makes a decision on the pool at the end of November.

The seafront attraction has been under threat since March, when North Somerset Council set up a review panel to look into the running and maintenance costs.

After five months of investigation, the panel recommended the pool should be closed and the site sold for development because it said the lido cost too much to run.

Its report now has to be scrutinised by the strategic planning and economic development (SPED) policy and scrutiny panel working group before a final decision on the pool is taken by the authority's executive at the end of November.

The working group, made up of eight councillors, will be discussing the contents of the report with STOP campaigners tonight.

Campaign leader Roger Whitfield will make a presentation to the panel regarding the group's plans to take over the pool.

The panel will also hear from members of the Friends of Portishead Open-Air Pool group and pool campaigners Annette Hennessey and Tonia Carless.

Mr Whitfield said: "We have concerns that some of the information in the report is inaccurate and as a result, the conclusion to close the pool by the review panel is wrong.

"The meeting will give us the chance to raise our concerns with the panel and highlight where we think the report it wrong and question where some of the information has come from.

"It will also give us the opportunity to outline our plans."

Scrutiny panel working group member and Portishead councillor David Pasley said members were keen to hear the group's views.

He said: "The people of Portishead can be assured that every angle will be covered. Further working group meetings will be held as we plan to talk to as many people as possible."