Tug of war continues over town swimming (From Warrington Guardian)

Tug of war continues over town swimming

A ROW over whether Warrington needs more swimming pools or has too many dominated Monday's full council meeting.

The town's Liberal Democrats claim new evidence produced by international swimmer and mathematician Judy Brown contradicts a consultant's report, which concluded Warrington, had too much pool space.

Lib Dem group leader Clr Ian Marks said a round-table meeting needed to be set up between all parties to resolve the differences in the figures, which he said could have a crucial bearing on the decision not to look for a new town centre pool following the closure of Legh Street baths last year.

He said: "If it turns out there is a shortage of water space, then we have a firm basis for talking to potential developers about options for funding a new baths and for looking at other ways of funding the on-going costs."

But Labour spokesman on health and leisure Clr Colin Froggatt said he did not think a round-table discussion would be the best way forward.

He said: "I am sure Einstein didn't create the theory of relativity by putting politicians in a room."

He added that, irrespective of whether the maths was right or wrong, the basic principles for deciding not to pursue a town centre baths remained the same. Whatever those figures say, the way we want to develop leisure facilities is by using the education system and it does not negate us from providing more swimming pool space in the town.

"What it does negate is the building of a stand-alone facility. That is not a viable option in the centre of the town.

"But that does not stop us from talking to developers," he added.