Those members of the public who attended the so called meeting at Lowther today will know what a waste of time it was. We were told that no questions from the floor would be allowed and in fact the only ones that were allowed were a selection of pre advised ones made through councillors. None of the councillors other than those on the elite table were allowed any opportunity to query or debate any answers given.The LARGEST SINGLE FIGURE in the finance statement ( section 9.) which would have covered the main "hot topic" of the £5 million for the offices revamp was hastily moved over with no chance of explanation or debate.Interesting that there were no mention of the words council offices revamp or such like!! Similarly St Annes baths and Lowther pavillion were barely mentioned.It was not a meeting it was a farce.

It is a sad day today as i can remember very fondly how proud we were to close down (but with sadness) the St. Annes open air pool ! We were proud to move to the indoor pool and work there ! All nice and new !
That must be about 20 years ago ! Is that it? 20 years shelf life for a modern swimming pool ? What these useless elected councils do with our money is frightening !
The only people to suffer in this will be the most vulnerable in our society !
Children, elderly and disabled who rely heavily on the BEST form of physical & mental exercise; swimming !
I must add that the management at all these pools are a disgrace to themselves as they persistently do not keep in good and clean order the swimming pools. Knock on affect is that Joe public don't return after having a bad experience on their last visit !
Parents who sit on the side of the pool aren't helping whilst their children swim. Would it hurt to get in and interact with your kids ? May be have a swim too !
No, "i'll get my hair wet" /"don't have the time".... blah blah !
We are all losers in the end ALL of us !
When the local chavs are sat outside your house saying they got nowhere to go.........!
They will be right now !

For a seaside location there's a sad history of removing facilities where kids can learn to swim safely.

I suspect it has sweet FA to do with costs and more to do with the future sale of the site for development, and we all know that such development is for the benefit of the community, not.

Two words; Derby Baths!

What sort of council clowns have we elected here at St Annes? how can they put revamping the town hall before learning children that live near the sea how to swim? the town hall chandelier wont save a child from drowning in the sea, and selling north shore car park to pay for the town hall revamp will put more cars parked at kerbsides obstucting drivers views of children crossing the roads in the area, think of the people that elected you please, not your own comfort.

YES IT IS "important that the council follow the wishes of residents when spending their money", pity that doesn't appear to be the case !

are none of you actually listening to what is being said, the council lose 300,000 a year keeping the pools open, so how is that using tax payers money, its losing tax payers money, so why doesnt someone else take over the baths YMCA for example. you all moan about how much council tax you pay yet you want the council to keep open places that lose so much money, if it was your business you wouldnt want to keep it open would you. there are plenty of places to swim, why cant the schools pay for the pools ??

well rate payer,(by the way we all pay our council tax, its not just for the chosen few, everybody rich or poor has to pay) living by the sea its not complusary to swim in the sea, but the way my dad taught me to swim, it took 2 minutes he just threw me out of a boat into the sea and i swam for my life that was my swimming lesson and it worked.

To my knowledge no-one at FBC has suggested that we throw children into the sea as a way to avoid paying for the pools, nor do I think it very likely that they will.
The council cannot sell its assets and use it to fund revenue activities - there is specific legislation that stops them from doing so. What they could do however is to do up some of these assets from capital funds (one or two could maybe be sold to fund this) and generate income by letting out such properties. This would help with our income problems which are partly due to problems within our council and also largely to do with cuts in money from the government (business rates all go to central funds and then a grant is made back to the council depending on what the government thinks is their relative need).
It is a shame that FBC seem to be adopting spin and are not explaining things to the public or allowing for debate. I thought this was what a press officer was paid for, and it means increasing numbers of people are not trusting their decisions are for the best overall.