Pool talks go public in bid to fund repairs (From Gazette Series)

Pool talks go public in bid to fund repairs

SAVE our pool was the message delivered to Gloucestershire County Council last night at a public meeting held to amass support for Berkeley Swimming Pool.

A strong turn out of parents, pupils, residents and councillors supporting the future of the community pool was expected at the meeting held as the Gazette went to press.

The Gazette revealed last month that the pool at Berkeley Primary School was in a desperate state of repair and to meet new health and safety rules would need modernising to the tune of £30,000 - a cost the school could not afford.

In an attempt to save the pool and rouse local support, headteacher Martin Bragg called for the public meeting to explain that without the money the pool would have to close.

He told the Gazette this week: "The school has been struggling for many years to keep the pool going and we have at last acknowledged it cannot continue. The pool now needs the support of the Berkeley community.

"There's just no money. The Local Education Authority hasn't got the money to support school swimming pools and neither have we."

The pool was built 40 years ago after a series of fatal accidents on the River Severn and on the Sharpness canal. Local people at the time donated money to build three local swimming pools at Berkeley Primary School, the Vale of Berkeley College and Sharpness Primary School.

Local campaigner Ted Holmes, a Berkeley town councillor and member of the original committee that built the pool, said the town council should take more responsibility for the facility.

He said: "It was decided by the committee that built the pool that no pupil would leave Berkeley Primary School without a competent certificate in swimming.

"I believe we should all we can to make sure the pool stays in existence.

"On Thursday I will sound out public support on the proposal that the town council finance the entire project. After Thursday I will write a letter to the wider Berkeley community about this proposal and ask whether they would be prepared to cover the extra rate cost needed."

To pay for the swimming pool Berkeley Town Council would have to raise its precept or borrow from public finance.