A consensus appears to be emerging from a council’s appeal for community solutions to fill the void left by the closure of Keswick’s leisure pool.
The Keswick Reminder reported earlier this month that Allerdale Borough Council was keen to work with residents to develop “ambitious’’ projects to improve the town’s health and wellbeing following the announcement that the pool is to close permanently.
Council leader Mike Johnson said there was clearly a lot of interest in the issue and added that the local authority was ‘’keen to tap into that and find out people’s views.’’
The story was posted on the Reminder’s Facebook page, asking what would you like to see replace Keswick Leisure Pool’ and the overwhelming response was “a proper pool that you can swim in.’’
“A pool you can swim in, a decent sized gym and maybe a decent outdoor sports area that doesn’t flood,’’ said Beck Cole.
“Keswick is Allerdale Borough Council’s cash cow and it would be nice if the locals could have their well-being thought about occasionally. It’s not just a town for tourists!’’
Robert Royall said: ‘’A proper pool for lane swimming with a separate area for other water activities – must be some examples of innovative designs out there! A general purpose area for activity classes and the gym of course.’’
Billy Stephenson requested a pool with swimming lanes and perhaps a general swimming area, a decent gym and maybe and community rooms/sports hall.
James Morris asked for a decent pool kids can have swimming lessons. And Derek Cannon said: ‘’A swimming pool rather than a gimmicky paddling pool. Ideally with a gym attached.’’
A number of people asked for a leisure centre “like the one they have at Penrith’’ and other suggestions included affordable housing, a supermarket and a McDonalds with drive through!
One of those was Dave Bottoms who said: ‘’Fifty metre six lane Olympic pool with modern changing facilities. But would settle for a Penrith -type facility.’’
And Nick Cripps said: ‘’Just a normal, everyday pool, large enough so that you don’t have to queue for an hour to get in.’’
