Ideas needed to fund Wem pool improvements
A campaign group is asking for the public's help in coming up with ideas on how it can raise the £40,000 needed to make improvements to a town's swimming centre.
The Friends of Wem Pool have issued the appeal in the hope of raising the cash to allow work to be carried out on building a new gym and viewing area at Wem Swimming and Lifestyle Centre this year.
In March, the group announced it had already secured £10,000 towards the project.
In a statement released this week, the group said: "We need your help please. We need ideas of how to raise £40,000 to complete the funds needed to start your new gym and viewing area.
"We've tried funding applications without much joy. It would be great to get this new extension built this year."
The group, which will hold its AGM at Wem Sports and Social Club at 7pm on June 22, said people can post fundraising ideas on its Facebook page.
"Let's get this started together," the statement added.
At a council meeting in December Wem Town Council agreed to allocate up to £40,000 to part-fund the gym extension. That funding from the council will only be available for use once sufficient cash has been raised to cover the whole project.
The Friends of Wem Pool said it will need a total of £115,000 for the gym and viewing area.
Group member Malcolm Adkins said: “We have had some money from a housing group and another group which has funds for the Shropshire and the Welsh area.
“It still leaves us short but we have got two strategies – one is to carry on approaching local businesses and funding agencies, and the other one will be a community share issue.
“Once the gym is funded the next stage will be to improve the exercise studio.
"We are working at a couple of businesses at the moment. The community share issue – we are not sure whether to launch that now, or to launch it for the next stage of the project for the exercise studio.
"We hope to put together the funds in the not to distant future.
"We would like to see as many people at our AGM as possible."
The friends' group was set up in 2006 when the former North Shropshire District Council decided there was no future in the pool and it would be closed.
Since 2015, when Teme Leisure stepped back from its management, it has been running the pool.
