Portishead pool: We won't thrown in towel

A new campaign to fight plans to close Portishead's Open Air Pool for good has been launched.

Businessman Roger Whitfield and resident David Coombes have joined forces to set up the Save Portishead Open Air Pool campaign after council chiefs revealed plans to permanently shut the seafront facility.

The pool closed, for what could be the final time, at the end of the 2008 summer season on September 28.

A special review panel, set up by North Somerset Council earlier this year to review the running costs of the pool, has recommended it closes and the site is sold off because the attraction costs the authority an average of £130,000 each year to run.

Mr Whitfield, who runs Nortech Computers in the town, is now planning a public protest outside the pool tomorrow from 4pm to 4.30pm, to show the strength of support locally to keep the facility open.

He has also spent the weekend handing out more than 200 leaflets in the High Street informing people of the protest and putting up posters in more than 50 shops urging people to join the campaign.

A website – www.nortechcomputers.co.uk/pool – has been set up to provide information about the pool closure plan.

Those who oppose the closure can sign a petition at Nortech Computers and Morgan Westley in the High Street.

Mr Whitfield, 43, who moved to Portishead when he was seven, said: "It is important that we gather public opinion to show the council that the people of Portishead want to keep the pool open.

"I am hoping as many people as possible will come along to the demonstration tomorrow to show the strength of feeling about keeping the pool open.

"The threat to close the pool for good is a very real one and the people of Portishead need to stand up and be counted and fight against this proposal."

Mr Whitfield said when he heard the news that the pool's future was under threat, he contacted the council with the idea of setting up a trust – as did the Friends of Portishead Open Air Pool group – to run the facility.

But Mr Whitfield said the idea fell on deaf ears.

Mr Whitfield, of Conference Avenue, said: "The pool is a popular attraction in Portishead and you only have to go down there on a nice day in the summer to see it full of people, including lots of teenagers.

"Portishead is stuffed full of young people with little to do and taking away the pool would mean even less facilities for them and other members of the community.

"I have fond memories of the pool and when I was a child my friends and I used it a lot and I want my children to be able to do the same."

Pool campaigner Annette Hennessy is also fighting the closure plan and, with the help of the Friends' group, is questioning the figures and recommendations contained in the report by the review panel.

The review panel is recommending that the money used to subsidise the pool would be better spent on more important council priorities, including new investment at Parish Wharf Leisure Centre in Portishead.

A final decision on whether the pool will close will be taken by North Somerset's executive on Tuesday, October 28.

If rubber stamped, the site would then be put up for sale, netting the authority an estimated £600,000.

Fears have already been voiced that the site would be turned into a luxury flats development.