If you live in Blackbird Leys, or anywhere else in Oxford, you have just two days to lodge an objection to a Planning Application from the Council to itself for a new swimming pool.
Oxford City Council is pressing ahead with its scheme to close down two leisure centres (Temple Cowley Pools & Fitness Centre, and Blackbird Leys Swimming Pool) and build a brand new pool in Blackbird Leys next to the existing Leisure Centre. The existing centres could be refurbished and improved for £3m, while a new 25m pool will have a capital cost of over £9m. Does this make financial sense or offer value for money when there are cuts to frontline services happening across the city?
Oxford City Council is pressing ahead with its scheme to close down two leisure centres (Temple Cowley Pools & Fitness Centre, and Blackbird Leys Swimming Pool) and build a brand new pool in Blackbird Leys next to the existing Leisure Centre. The existing centres could be refurbished and improved for £3m, while a new 25m pool will have a capital cost of over £9m. Does this make financial sense or offer value for money when there are cuts to frontline services happening across the city?
The labour-run city council has ignored the largest ever petition in Oxford’s history, 11,000 signatures, saying that it simply doesn’t care what it’s voters think. Another petition, with 2,000 signatures raised in only six weeks is going to Full Council next week.
In the meantime, the council continues and the planning process is in full swing. The council claims extensive support for a new pool, but that seems to be only among the 250-strong elite swimming club members who have threatened to close the club if the council don’t given them a shiny new pool. People in Blackbird Leys living near the site certainly don’t want it – this is a residential area, close to schools, with a small row of shops and no other facilities that will be flooded with cars between 6am and 10pm if the scheme goes ahead, and particularly at weekends when regional galas will close the pool to regular swimmers.
The travel plans for existing TCP users are totally inadequate, but the council believes these users simply don’t matter as they will go wherever they are told. Users of the current BL pool like it because it is much warmer than a competition pool, and enclosed so that minority groups can use it without fear of being overlooked. And if the Blackbird Leys community really wanted more swimming, they would be asking for more than the current 9.5 hrs a week public swimming time!
If you live anywhere in Oxford, but particularly Blackbird Leys, you can make an objection, but you must do it by this Thursday, 17th February. Contact the Save Temple Cowley Pools (and Blackbird Leys Swimming Pool) Action Group at
savetcp@gmail.com and we’ll provide guidance on what you can and can’t object to.
In the meantime, the council continues and the planning process is in full swing. The council claims extensive support for a new pool, but that seems to be only among the 250-strong elite swimming club members who have threatened to close the club if the council don’t given them a shiny new pool. People in Blackbird Leys living near the site certainly don’t want it – this is a residential area, close to schools, with a small row of shops and no other facilities that will be flooded with cars between 6am and 10pm if the scheme goes ahead, and particularly at weekends when regional galas will close the pool to regular swimmers.
The travel plans for existing TCP users are totally inadequate, but the council believes these users simply don’t matter as they will go wherever they are told. Users of the current BL pool like it because it is much warmer than a competition pool, and enclosed so that minority groups can use it without fear of being overlooked. And if the Blackbird Leys community really wanted more swimming, they would be asking for more than the current 9.5 hrs a week public swimming time!
If you live anywhere in Oxford, but particularly Blackbird Leys, you can make an objection, but you must do it by this Thursday, 17th February. Contact the Save Temple Cowley Pools (and Blackbird Leys Swimming Pool) Action Group at
savetcp@gmail.com and we’ll provide guidance on what you can and can’t object to. 
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