Shrewsbury pool process is halted for a fresh look

Shropshire Council bosses are expected to call an immediate halt to the current process to work out what will become of the Quarry Swimming and Fitness Centre – and swimming provision in the town – as a report will go before the authority's ruling cabinet next week suggesting alternative town centre sites are looked at again as a matter of priority.

Last year Shropshire Council agreed that it wanted to close the pool at the Quarry and to build a replacement at Sundorne.

However, following criticism of the plans, the authority gave other groups 12 months to come up with a plan to keep the pool in the town centre.

If the new report is ratified next week, it will mean the council is essentially pressing the reset button on both of those developments.

It follows a pledge by Councillor Peter Nutting, who took over as leader of Shropshire Council in May, to examine the case for keeping the swimming pool in Shrewsbury's town centre more thoroughly again, along with a call from Shrewsbury MP Daniel Kawczynski for Shropshire Council to find a solution to keep swimming facilities central.

Lezley Picton, Shropshire Council's cabinet member for culture and leisure, said: "A new administration is in place and basically we're going to stop the current process and re-look at the provision in the town centre.

"We are going to revisit and look at other sites in Shrewsbury.

"I can't deny that public opinion hasn't contributed to that. There has been a huge swell of public opinion on keeping it in the town centre, but to be fair I think the new administration wanted to look at it again anyway."

She said it was important to call a halt to the current process as there were interested parties currently looking at getting together a business case for keeping the pool within the loop of the River Severn, and she did not want them to be wasting their time if the goalposts were going to change following a council review.

"I certainly didn't want any group to be spending money unnecessarily," she said.

The Quarry Swimming and Fitness Forum, a group which has been campaigning to keep the pool where it is, pulled out of the process earlier this year but Shrewsbury Town Council has said it is working on a bid for the pool which could be submitted, with a deadline of October 27.

But if the move is passed in July 12, a fresh review will be carried out by Shropshire Council into the different location options, and any bids from outside groups will be put on hold until that review has been completed.

"Nothing's ruled out and nothing's ruled in," Councillor Picton said.