Heywood councillors unhappy with swimming pool decision

Heywood councillors are unhappy with the decision to close Gaskell Swimming Pool in Heywood during the school summer holidays.

The Rochdale Council coalition cabinet made the decision at an informal cabinet meeting last week.

The swimming baths will close at the end of July. The council have made arrangements to transport children to other swimming baths in the borough.

Heywood township chairman, Councillor Alan McCarthy said: “This proposal has already been rejected by the Heywood councillors as both unfair and no practicable.

“To take away this facility during the peak time of the school holidays will cause unnecessary disruption and leave Heywood young people and families with the loss of a vital facility during the summer months.”

Councillor McCarthy added: “I find it diabolical that this decision can be reached without any public consultation and very little thought, if this also means that we lose the sports hall during summer as well, which provides a vital youth facility on Friday evenings, then the council must face the consequences, unfortunately, it will be the community of Heywood who will suffer.”

“This decision comes on the back of the coalition cabinet failing to help the sports clubs who are facing delays of loss of facilities this summer. At the recent township meeting two Heywood football clubs came to ask what sports pitches will be available for their teams from September. The response from the council was ‘don’t know, nothing to do with us.’"

Labour Leader and Heywood Councillor, Colin Lambert, isn’t pleased that the decision was made behind closed doors, he said: “It appears that nothing has changed.

“For the past three years both the Labour group and the then minor opposition party the Conservatives complained because they were excluded from the informal cabinet meetings.”

He also expressed his concern about a lack of meeting papers, he said: “At least over the past year we both received copies of the agenda and the necessary papers, but since the coalition has taken charge nothing has been sent to the labour group and we are still excluded from the informal cabinet.”

Mr Lambert continued: “They need reminding that informal cabinet has no constitutional powers and can not take decisions which have any base in law.

“The Conservatives perhaps need reminding that they are now part of the lack of democracy which they spent three years complaining about.”

Cabinet Member for Environment and Leisure, Councillor David Clayton, said: “There are two reasons for having to close Gaskell Pool before we open the new pools in the Heywood Sports Village. Firstly, we need to take out equipment and staff and transfer them to the new building. Secondly, we need to complete fit out of the new building and train staff. This transition programme has been refined and represents the minimum amount of time we need to make sure that the new building open on time and is ready to offer a quality service to local people.

“Gaskell Pool will close on the 1 August and on the 18 September the new centre will open for guided tours to help customers familiarise themselves with the building. The Heywood Sports Village will open for business on the 20th September.”

Councillor Clayton added: “We know that there is a need for public swimming during the summer period and all of our other swimming pools are open and in addition to this we have arranged to open Castleton Baths as well. To help Heywood people to access the borough’s other swimming pools we have arranged a free bus which will operate seven days a week during the school holidays. It should be noted that the Jack Talbot Sports Centre will remain in operation until the new centre is opened.”

Councillor Clayton, concluded: “Although local people were consulted on the design and have had the opportunity to influence the design we haven’t had any public consultation on the transition programme.

“We did however ask all Heywood Township councillors to attend a meeting at the Phoenix centre on the 13 April for a briefing on the matter and so that they could raise any concerns. Unfortunately only the 3 Heywood North Councillors bothered to turn up.”
At the time of publication the Leader of the Council, Councillor Irene Davidson and the Deputy Leader of the Council, Councillor Ashley Dearnley were unavailable for comment.

http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/42700/countdown-begins-to-new-heywood-sports-village