'Fix' claim as group fights to keep Shrewsbury pool at the Quarry
The group behind a campaign to keep the Quarry Pool in Shrewsbury town centre has pulled out of a consultation, claiming it was fixed.
Bernard Wills, from the Quarry Forum, said Shropshire Council was biased towards the pool being sited at Shrewsbury Sports Village in Sundorne and was not willing to consider any other option.
The decision to withdraw from the process had not been taken lightly and Mr Wills said that legal action may be the only way to achieve their aims.
He has sent a strongly-worded letter to Shropshire Council outlining their reasons for halting its business plan.
But the group is still willing to talk to the council about the future of the pool. Mr Wills said the forum felt as if it had been backed into a corner by the onerous requirements laid out for a successful business plan by the council.
"We could make a legal challenge and one of the things we are looking at is to legally challenge the whole process," said Mr Wills.
"They are writing off The Quarry Pool without doing an in-depth survey on the structure of the building, so we do not know what the actual costs of renovating it would be. We feel that we have been pushed into this because of the terms of reference in the council tender."
Mr Wills said they would want an independent review of the process which led to the authority's cabinet selecting Sundorne as the preferred location for a new pool.
"A legal challenge is probably the last opportunity, but hopefully if they were to get round the table and discuss it properly there may be an opportunity for it to be reviewed."
But Stuart West, Shropshire Council's cabinet member for culture and leisure, insisted that organisations said groups had been given time and information to prepare a business case.
"In September, Shropshire Council's cabinet agreed that any interested organisation would have up to 12 months to prepare a business case for keeping a swimming pool at The Quarry or other town centre location.
To help with the preparation of a business case, and in the interests of fairness, all organisations have access to the same detailed information.
"Shropshire Council is in receipt of the letter from the Quarry Forum and will be responding to them in due course," he added.
