KEETCH DIVES IN TO CONTROVERSY OVER L.E.A. POOL'S FUTURE

2.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 22nd Jul 2008

Cllr Aubrey Oliver and Parliamentary Candidate Sarah Carr at the Hereford LEA Pool

Paul Keetch, MP for Hereford, has followed up the concerns of many constituents who have contacted him regarding Herefordshire Council's controversial plans to axe the LEA Pool at Hinton in Hereford. Mr Keetch has come out in support of calls for its retention already made by local councillor, Aubrey Oliver, and the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate, Sarah Carr.

"I have been approached by constituents with varying concerns about this nonsensical notion to close the LEA Pool," Mr Keetch explained, "Some have children who have swimming lessons there as part of their school curriculum, others belong to swimming clubs that will be compromised by its closure and lose crucial training facilities for some very promising athletes we have locally.

"This Tory council are again trying to disguise the reasons for closing the pool and attempting to fob the public off, yet again, with alternatives that simply do not add up," the MP continued.

"The Hereford leisure pool run by HALO is logistically an alternative but realistically it is impractical for primary school pupils to use and foolish to assume that athletes can use the pool along with leisure swimmers to practice to reach the standards necessary for competition. Some head teachers have already contacted my office to ask for help to save the pool confirming that they would not contemplate swimming lessons elsewhere for their pupils based on current proposals.

"The figures given by the Council for the closure and the alternatives simply don't add up! I am fully behind my colleagues in calling for the LEA Pool's refurbishment and retention and suggest that the Tories get their figures right before making any foolish decisions."