Is the offer still on the table?

AS WE all now know, any chance of us having our own swimming pool provided by North Somerset Council seems to be a lost cause.

We have been told "a new swimming pool is not on the radar". If not why not this has been the only thing of interest to the people of Weston for the past 10 years, and everybody already knows this including all the councillors, admittedly it is of no interest to councillors from outside Weston.

Which brings me to the fact that on this very subject I have written and had published letters (admitted maybe two or three years ago) about a similar situation to our pool and a pool in London's Hackney Borough Council.

They had closed their London Fields Lido in 1986 but after 20 years decided to refurbish their pool and get it re-opened.

It was re-opened in October 2006.

I would ask any reader and any especially all council members to get on the net and key in London Fields Lido and see for themselves what could be done for us. All the details can be found costs, builders, architects etc.

They now have the only Olympic size outdoor heated swimming pool in London.

We would be able to arrange to let out quite a few concessions to bring in extra income.

Also it appears the London Lido is happy with its present entrance cost. It only charges �4.10 for an adult and �2.45p a child (as against the proposed �30 per family cost for a two hour session with the Henry Boot pool). Let's face it we would be glad with anything.

Sometime ago in 2006 there was also a news feature on the Heritage Lottery Fund and the government's and for local councils to support swimming pools. This was where Stephen Johnson of the fund was saying "the lottery fund could help or even pay to build a pool for councils, but once built they had to be run and maintained by the various councils out of admission charges".

Is the offer still on the table?

Surely after all this time we shouldn't give up hope after all what we have always wanted was a pool just not as grand as the one we are now not getting, but at least we have not lost two thirds of our beach lawns as we were going to.

LAURENCE F ORME

Shrubbery Avenue, Weston