New campaign to reopen Fleetwood's swimming pool as anger grows over funding snub

A Facebook group, Save Fleetwood Swimming Pool, has been set up to find ways to get the pool, which has been closed since March, reopened and it is already attracting wide community support.

It follows an extraordinary meeting of the Wyre cabinet on Wednesday, when the cabinet approved an additional subsidy of £340,165 in 2020/21 for Fylde Coast YMCA to help reopen fitness amenities at Thornton and Garstang - including the pool there - once COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.

However, the centres at Fleetwood and Poulton will have to be kept under monthly review until it is deemed financially viable to reopen them.

All four centres, owned by Wyre Council but operated by the YMCA, have been badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

Opponents of Wyre's decision, including Labour councillors from Fleetwood, have challenged the council's financial decision-making and argue that reopening all four centres until March would have been viable.

Since being set up on Friday (November 27) the campaign group has attracted more than 1,700 members.

Elliot Myers, chief coach at Fleetwood Swimming Club, is a central figure in the group and says getting the pool reopened - and staying open - is the key priority.

He later said:"As swimming coach I get to see, on a daily basis, how Fleetwood Swimming Pool is at the centre of the whole town’s community.

"It is used by young and old, classes of schoolchildren, entire families at a time, those who are healthy, those in recovery, some for leisure and some out of necessity.

"I may be naive but I would have expected that Wyre Council would have a duty of care to support this community, especially in these most trying of times."

Among those supporting the group is Carolyn Thackway, head teacher of Charles Saer Primary School, who posted: "Our children have not been swimming since March, it’s unbelievable that in a seaside town the powers that be do not recognise the overwhelming importance of teaching children to swim.

"Without the school swimming sessions the vast majority of our children would not have the opportunity to learn to swim, potentially leading to young lives being put at risk."

The group can be found at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2737324736517807/Fleetwood MP Cat Smith, who set up an online petition earlier this year, has also criticised the decision at Wyre.

At the Cabinet meeting, Coun Lynne Bowen, portfolio holder for leisure, health and community engagement at Wyre Council, said the council needed to support leisure in Wyre and the latest funding brought the total funding package to support Fylde Coast YMCA to just under £1million.

She said the centres with the most members and the most people using them were those at Garstang and Thornton, making them the most viable.

But opponents say the figures supporting this argument do not stack up and they are further angered that an additional £30,000 was approved by the Cabinet to spend on external consultants to help develop a long term leisure strategy for Wyre.

Coun Rob Fail, leader of Wyre’s Labour group, argued that if the council were to spend £340,000 on reopening just two centres, it would make more sense to go for another of the options available – to reopen all four centres until March for the not considerably greater sum of £368,000.

Coun Lorraine Beavers, of Fleetwood, said Wyre figures, which suggested Thornton had greater numbers using its amenities this year, did not take into account Fleetwood’s pool had been closed since March, affecting the amount of people who would normally have used it.

And fellow Fleetwood councillor Cheryl Raynor said the port’s swimming pool, which was the biggest in Wyre, was vital for the wellbeing of the elderly, disabled and people with mental health issues who relied on it.

However, Coun Elizabeth Webster ,Conservative member for Brock with Catterall, backed the decision and said: “Garstang is the service centre of the many rural villages of Wyre and those residents have much further to go to find alternatives facilities.”