Banbury Pool Campaign

Summary of the Banbury Experience.

An Open Air Pool Support Group, in one form or another has been an important contributor to the success of Banbury’s Woodgreen pool since it was opened in 1939. For almost fifty years the pool locally managed by Cherwell District Council together with the voluntary Support Group that organised fundraising events and bought new equipment worked together to provide a Banbury with a hugely enjoyable and memorable summer experience. A film clip of pool events in the 1980s is on the website.

Then in 1998, a year before the pool’s Jubilee, things began to fall apart. Part of the new fibreglass lining peeled away two days after the pool opened for the summer season. It was closed.. Expensive refurbishment was undertaken. It was a fiasco. Consultants came and went. Different solutions were tried. The Pool Support Group were suspicious of work and decision-making but remained supportive. After all the community was proud and fond of its pool. Were the problems being exaggerated by officials or not? Decisions were being made privately. There was no proper consultation. Expensive refurbishing did not solve the problems. The local grapevine accused slapdash contractors and incompetent management. The Open Air Pool Campaign began to raise local awareness of the real risks of losing our pool altogether.

In 2003 a new management company was brought in by Cherwell District Council. Swimmers and fans of Woodgreen hoped all would be well. Soon however mysterious blisters were reported on children’s fee at the shallow end.. The evidence was unsubstantiated and no written complaint was made.Common sense veiws were that if kids stayed in the water for hours splashing in the shallow end without foot protection of course some of them might get a blister., but the Council’s Health and Safety officers closed the pool and later insisted on it being emptied in case trespassers fell in.

In April 2005 the community learned that a District Council might be planning to close the pool permanently. Fill it in and build on it. The campaigners (us) quickly organised a demo at the District Council offices. It organised a petition of over 5000 local citizens and demanded to be heard. As a result the councillors agreed to postpone any decision and think again. We began a campaign of shock and awe.

In July 2005 we organised a public meeting at which councillors and officials were invited to answer questions about the pool. Over three hundred packed the hall at Woodgreen and at the end of an emotional and often acrimonious discussion it appeared that if Cherwell would restore it to good quality condition., then Banbury Town Council might be prepared to take it over and run it.

At the next full Town Council meeting it was decided to set up a working group of councillors to look at options and guide the process forward. In the spring of 2005, they appointed a firm of management consultants, Knight.Kavanagh and Page, to research and write a feasibility study. Six months later they produced an assessment of the future of the open air pool that argued it could never be a viable facility. They put a number of options and pessimistic costings, none of which  would have met the needs of the community. They were sent off to revise and enlarge on some of those options and  another six months passed while this was being done. In September 2006 KKandP reported  again. forward further detail about the pitfalls that might overtake a new management of the site. 1 Fill in the pool and sell off the land to a property developer. 2. Hand it over to the British Canoe Union to use as its National Headqquarters, Training Centre and competition venue.There might be major funding for such a venture. In order to generate more income for the existing dryside it was proposed to stimulate the Banbury Bowling Club to maximise its membership which had been falling in recent years. No guidance was offered in how to improve and enhance the useage of other dryside activities.

The current state of play

At the same time the Pool Campaign began discussing with other groups using Woodgreen,- the Bowling Club, the Triathlonists, the Canoeists, Health and Fitness devotees, Fencers, Badminton players, Old Time Dancers and others - how to create a community company able and powerful enough to carry out a well l thought out business plan not only for the pool but also encourage all the users of the neighbouring community centre and to generate all kinds of new activities and opportunities not yet available. We all need each other.

This is where we are at the present time.

So who are We?

We are a large and wide cross section of local people of all sorts of political or religious persuasions, all sorts of trades and professions, young and old, angry and passionate towards one goal - that come hell and high water, the pool should re-open and succeed. We live in all parts of this town of some 60,000 and in the villages and towns within a rough radius of 20 miles.

We have learnt that we cannot isolate the pool from other leisure groups in other parts of Woodgreen. We have to stand together with other social and fitness groups to have a chance of succeeding. We believe that an energetically managed local community run pool and centre will be able to do it better than an arms length public company who have no links to this community. Our solution would keep any profit in the company to improve the service. We sense that many local politicians no longer have the will to fund such a facility. News from across the country is that other community groups are struggling with their local councils who have previously funded lidos and indoor pools who want to opt out. Some campaigns are succeeding in finding alternative ways of running them, others are failing. In less than a year we have convinced both Cherwell District Council and Banbury Town Council that money should be made available. There is a question about whether it will be enough and whether the promises will be kept. We need to make sure they keep their promise.

We now need to find and bring together a local group of skilled professional business people who are able and willing to work with us to achieve this goal. We shall need sponsors and grants to improve the income raising potential of Woodgreen. If you want to help or become involved, get in touch with Glyn Tiller or Derrick Knight. If you have any comment or opinion you wish to share - let us know and we will post what you say on our website.  We shall need to employ a small team of key managers to run the place. Any other staff will be recruited locally. We shall contnue to call on voluntary help from the members of clubs and sports involved.

When the open air pool was re-launched after WWII, it quickly became one of the favourite summer delights for tens of thousands of locals from the town and villages around. It was a special experience. It was a fun place, a friendly place, a relaxing place. It was possible to spend the whole day in and out of the water. Banbury was as far from the seaside as it was possible to be and travel abroad in the forties and fifties was not yet available or popular.  Cheap travel and sunny tourist destinations made Lido's at home less attractive. But times have changed. Now the talk is about healthy sports and leisure facilities to fight obesity, to confront climate change and longer hotter summers, to persuade people not to fly so much and use facilities closer to home, to provide ‘added value’ to use a current phrase.  So a well run open air pool can again be a delight and a special experience.  With new technology available in the form of retractable roofing and solar heating, the swimming season can be stretched without spoiling the outdoor feel of the place.  The future beckons.