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Published:
February 15, 2008
Community
bid to take on management of Burnham pool gathers pace
 Campaigners
fighting to save Burnham-On-Sea's closure-threatened swimming
pool met this week to discuss a possible community bid to take
on ownership of the facility.
Tom
Ashton, Chairman of the Save Our Swimming Pool campaign group,
met local Liberal Democrats Joe Leach and parliamentary candidate
Tessa Munt (as pictured) to discuss how local residents could
mount a community-led bid to take on the management of the Berrow
Road pool if no commercial owner be found by the May 31st deadline.
Tom
told Burnham-On-Sea.com after this week's meeting: "It was
very constructive. I feel that any campaign group fighting to
save a swimming pool would not be fulfilling its role if it didn't
have a 'Plan B' in place. If Sedgemoor District Council's Task
Group fails to find a new owner we will have a fall-back plan."
The
comments came after he outlined how such a scheme might work financially
during a speech at Wednesday's special budgetary meeting of the
district council.
 "We're
proposing Sedgemoor puts aside £500,000 a year over the
next five years to allow community groups to take over Burnham
Pool and The Splash at Bridgwater," he said.
"This would generate savings of £850,000 a year based
on SDC's original budget, and would provide enough funding for
repairs to go ahead and allow a community-led management group
to take on the day-to-day running of the pools. It could also
mean car parks could no longer need to be sold off in Highbridge
and Bridgwater."
"It's
a fully-workable plan and already has a growing amount of support
across the town," he said.
"Obviously,
we would prefer a commercial company to come forward to take on
the management of Burnham pool, but if this doesn't happen we
are putting a 'Plan B' in place."
Burnham-On-Sea.com
reported last week how
Sedgemoor District Council said it was making "promising
progress" in finding a new commercial owner to take over
the pool. A further update is due to be given on March
6th at 6pm in Burnham Community Centre.
RELATED
LINKS:
Official
'Save Our Swimming Pool' website
'Promising
progress' made in search for new pool owner
Liberal
Democrats give Burnham pool campaigners a boost
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campaigners demand answers on running costs
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turnout at packed swimming pool public meeting
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meeting set to be held on future of pool
700
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'We'll
fight closure of Burnham swimming pool' vow campaigners
Burnham
swimming pool 'may permanently close by April 2008'
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