Conservative Council tries to pull plug on LEA Pool

1.38.07pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 6th Oct 2008

Paralympians from the County join Lib Dem Sarah Carr's campaign to save the vital services that the LEA Pool offers

At the latest meeting of the Council's Scrutiny committee for Children's Services, Conservative Cabinet member for Education and Achievement Phillip Price made his opinion clear: the LEA pool should not be saved.

The cross-party committee recommended that the Council put children's safety first by reopening the pool, whilst Hereford Parliamentary candidate Sarah Carr presented hundreds of petitions in support of the pool.

Councillor Price refused to be moved, saying that for every supporter of the pool, there were one or two people telling the Council that they wanted it closed. Councillor Price was unable to give any figures or evidence for this statement. He then went on to tell the committee that closing the pool would not put county children in any extra danger of drowning. He told the assembled councillors that, "Most of the children who have drowned knew how to swim. Those that didn't should have stayed away from the water."

One campaigner for the LEA pool who attended the meeting later voiced his disgust at the councillor's words. "It just goes to show how out of touch the people who run our county are. To ignore the risk of drowning that faces children who can't swim shows how little the concerns of people of our county mean to them."

With Herefordshire Council's leadership looking unlikely to save the much-needed swimming pool, it appears very likely that the needs of children in the county will once again be ignored.