The Tunstall Community Pool Trust meet with Stoke-on-Trent City Council for the first talks about the future of Tunstall Pool

Wednesday 25th 2011

The Tunstall Community Pool Trust, made of campaigners and advocates of keeping the swimming facilities at Tunstall Pool, finally had their first official meeting with a panel of senior council officers and managers.

After more than a 3 month wait for the meeting in which the Council held failed talks with the ASA to run the swimming pool as a joint venture, the Tunstall Community Pool Trust were invited present their case to take over running of the pool and secure a lease for the building.

After the meeting, Tunstall Community Pool chairman Richard Hawthorne considered the meeting went

remarkably well.

Considering that Stoke-on-Trent City Council held a number of concerns such as how could a Administrator, Design Engineer, Vicar, Web Developer and Photographer run a swimming pool day to day between us and also how we hoped to make the pool viable, when the council couldn't.

Mr Hawthorne assured the council officers, that the pool would be run as a business, with the correct staff in place such as trained life guards and an experienced pool manger for the day to day running.

In the meeting, council managers gave assurances that they would supply the necessary figures, which the group had sought over the past three months, which should clear up some of the discrepancies found in the facts and figures obtained.

With the financial figures, the trust will be able to then plan its needs and bids for funding for the first year of running, and complete the business plan, and file its application to become a charity.

Tunstall Councillor Lee Wanger said he

couldn't understand why this is the first meeting the Trust has had with the council.

Over the past months, Stoke-on-Trent city council has been keeping the pumps and systems running at the site at a cost of £500. The cost of closing the pool will be between £20,000 to £30,000 a year.

Tunstall Pool closed on 31st March 2011, with the loss of several jobs, after Stoke-on-Trent City Council earmarked the pool for closure and a short campaign to keep it open.