PEOPLE in Westbury made it clear that they want Wiltshire Council to continue to run Westbury Swimming Pool at a public meeting on Monday 28th June.
The second public meeting was held to allow people to find out more about the possibility of the swimming pool coming under community ownership, and to give people an opportunity to air their views.
Over the course of the campaign, both cllr Jane Scott, leader of Wiltshire Council, and cllr Stuart Wheeler, Wiltshire Cabinet member for leisure, sport, and culture, have offered their assurances that the town’s historic facility looks set to remain open. However, it is possible that this will be done by putting the swimming pool into community ownership, something attendees at the meeting objected strongly to.
Bob Lee, chair of the Save Westbury Pool Committee said, “The public that were present were very strong on saying we don’t really want a community trust. We want Wiltshire Council to run our pool; it’s not very expensive for them. There wasn’t as big a turn out as last time, but we got some good feedback.”
A meeting of the Save Westbury Pool Committee took place later on in the week, which was attended by MP Andrew Murrison.
“We’re very skeptical about how we could successfully run the pool as the community trust, there’s so many unknowns, we still strongly suspect that this is all that’s going to be offered,” said Bob.
Westbury’s historic facility came under threat earlier this year after Wiltshire Council identified an “overprovision” of swimming pools in west Wiltshire. A review of leisure facilities in the county is now nearing completion and is due to be released later this month. Once the report is released, the committee will meet again to determine the next course of action.
