Grant safeguards swimming pool's future

Buy photos » Robin Walker MP (centre) helps present the Sport England grant to officials from Worcester Citizens' Swimming Pool. (s)

A WORCESTER swimming pool has been saved from the threat of closure after being awarded £50,000 for its new roof appeal.

Worcester Citizens' Swimming Pool in Lower Wick was thrown the funding lifeline after Worcester MP Robin Walker wrote to Sport England appealing for help.

The city's only independently-run pool urgently needs to replace the cover of its leaking roof or face having to close.

But the grant from the Inspired Facilities Olympic legacy fund has taken the pool a major step closer to funding the £115,000 project.

The pool's trustees have already saved £45,000 and hope to raise the remaining £20,000 by next March.

Ian Thompson, who chairs the board of trustees, said the pool was one of the few remaining in Western Europe to operate independently.

"The grant is going to make an absolutely amazing difference. The roof has become a safety matter and without the grant we would definitely have had to close," he said.

Mr Thompson said the trustees would be writing to Worcester's top 100 businesses to ask them to each donate £100.

And he believes the remaining £10,000 can be raised by appealing to the good nature of the pool's users as well as council support.

Mr Walker said the money was a wonderful boost for a very valuable local community pool.

"It is fantastic to know that, in the run up to the Olympic year, we are getting some very real support and funding for sports in Worcester.

"People from all over Worcester, but particularly the West side of the Severn, enjoy this community swimming pool and many of my constituents learned to swim there. This investment will help to keep it available for many years to come," he said.

Anne Rippon, Sport England's strategic lead for the region, said: “We’re really pleased to be able to support this project to replace the roof at Worcester Citizens’ Swimming Pool - which currently has serious leaks. This is a really fitting Olympic legacy for Worcester."

The funding is part of the wider £135 million Places People Play National Lottery-funded legacy programme, which aims to bring the magic of next year's London Olympics and Paralympic Games into communities across England.