BROOMHILL POOL - A POOL FOR THE PEOPLE
I am standing in the General Election again because this Grade II Listed, Olympic-sized pool is a really valuable community resource and asset; it is beautiful architecturally and was designed to be a pool for all the people of Ipswich and not just for those in the higher income brackets. The Council claim there is already sufficient pool provision by using something called the Facility Planning Model created by Sport England; but this Model merges private, public and school swimming pools. For instance it allows the Council to count the indoor pool at the David Lloyd Health Club as part of the town's provision, even though the Council know full well that a monthly subscription there is beyond the reach of many residents.
The continued closure of the lido is not about lack of money or so-called "financial pressures". When the Council want to fund their own preferred heritage projects then these "pressures" don't seem to apply: eg they are pursuing a FOUR MILLION POUND project on Holywells Park, voting through £2 million in March 2008 alone to demonstrate "commitment" to the Heritage Lottery Fund.
By contrast, the Council's obvious lack of commitment to the lido's HLF bid (submitted by the Broomhill Pool Trust) drew stinging comments from Richard Powell, Regional Chairman of the HLF when he spoke on BBC Look East on 12th September: Ipswich Borough Council had promised a million pounds towards the lido's restoration, he said, but when the HLF looked at the bid that sum was not secured.
The HLF's fears were proved to be fully justified when Ipswich Borough Council neatly removed the million pound offer in December 2009 just at the point where it would have been most useful!
The continued closure of the lido is not about lack of money or so-called "financial pressures". When the Council want to fund their own preferred heritage projects then these "pressures" don't seem to apply: eg they are pursuing a FOUR MILLION POUND project on Holywells Park, voting through £2 million in March 2008 alone to demonstrate "commitment" to the Heritage Lottery Fund.
By contrast, the Council's obvious lack of commitment to the lido's HLF bid (submitted by the Broomhill Pool Trust) drew stinging comments from Richard Powell, Regional Chairman of the HLF when he spoke on BBC Look East on 12th September: Ipswich Borough Council had promised a million pounds towards the lido's restoration, he said, but when the HLF looked at the bid that sum was not secured.
The HLF's fears were proved to be fully justified when Ipswich Borough Council neatly removed the million pound offer in December 2009 just at the point where it would have been most useful!
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