Shrewsbury swimming pool campaigners looking at legal action
A campaigner who is attempting to keep Shrewsbury's swimming pool at The Quarry says he accepts that legal action may be the only option.
Bernard Wills, of the Quarry Forum, said the group is still willing to talk to Shropshire Council about the future of the pool, despite withdrawing from attempts to produce a business plan to keep the facility in the town centre.
Mr Wills said the forum felt as if it had been backed into a corner by the requirements laid out for a successful business plan by the council.
"We do have somewhere to go. We could make a legal challenge and one of the things we are looking at is to legally challenge the whole process," said Mr Wills.
"They are writing off The Quarry pool without doing an in-depth survey on the structure of the building, so we do not know what the actual costs of renovating it would be. We feel that we have been pushed into this because of the terms of reference in the council tender."
Mr Wills said he would be willing to continue discussions with the council about the pool, but would want an independent review of the process which led to the authority's cabinet selecting Shrewsbury sports village, Sundorne, as the preferred location for a new pool.
"A legal challenge is probably the last opportunity, but hopefully if they were to get round the table and discuss properly there may be an opportunity for it to be reviewed."
But Stuart West, Shropshire Council's cabinet member for culture and leisure, said groups have been given time and information to prepare a business case.
"In September, Shropshire Council's cabinet agreed that any interested organisation would have up to 12 months to prepare a business case for keeping a swimming pool at The Quarry or other town centre location.
"To help with the preparation of a business case, and in the interests of fairness, all organisations have access to the same detailed information which is available on Shropshire Council's website. This includes the terms of reference detailing the process for submitting business cases.
"Organisations have also been invited to submit an outline business case by early 2017 so that Shropshire Council can provide feedback on whether it is likely to meet future pool requirements."
"Once the evaluation of the business cases is complete, a report is set to go to Cabinet in December 2017 confirming Shropshire Council's preferred approach – and asking Cabinet to make a decision on the final preferred location."
