Residents and council await judicial review over proposed Blackbird Leys Park pool

In two weeks’ time, a battle on two fronts will be opened up to decide the future of Oxford City Council’s scheme for a multi-million pound swimming pool in Blackbird Leys.

The city council wants it to replace Temple Cowley Pools, which it deems to be beyond repair.

On Tuesday, April 16 a High Court judge will decide if a judicial review set in motion by one group of residents should be held into whether Oxford City Council can build the pool on Blackbird Leys Park.

Meanwhile, another group is lobbying against the closure of Temple Cowley Pools and has vowed to carry on its fight until the very last, submitting a petition demanding a meeting with the city council.

This petition will be discussed at a meeting of full council on Monday, April 22 after it was signed by more than 1,500 people.

Nigel Gibson, of the Save Temple Cowley Pools campaign, said: “Part of the reason we have had this petition is to have an open meeting so we can get on the table what is or isn’t correct about this.

“We don’t know what the outcome of the judicial review will be, but there are any number of possibilities, so we cannot prejudge it.

“Our objective is to keep Temple Cowley Pools open until the council comes up with information which doesn’t fall down when we question it. We will continue our campaign for as long as we can.”

Mr Gibson had also hoped to have a judicial review into the decision to close Temple Cowley Pools, but this was thrown out at the Royal Court of Justice in December.

Although he had originally hoped to appeal, he withdrew the bid because of a lack of funds.

Mr Gibson said petitions were one of a number of tactics the campaign was looking into using, now the legal route had been exhausted.

It means the only judicial review preventing the scheme from going ahead is the one submitted by Blackbird Leys residents hoping to stop the city council from building the new pool on the local park.

They have attempted to have the park ruled as a town green, but this was turned down by Oxfordshire County Council.

It is that decision campaigners are seeking to overturn through a judicial review.

Pegasus Road resident William Clark, one of the people behind this legal bid, said: “We have got just as much chance of success as the county council. The park has been a recreational ground we have used for 20 years, so it falls into the category for being a town green.”

He said residents also had concerns about the amount of traffic the swimming pool would generate.

City councillor Van Coulter, executive board member for leisure services, said: “I am confident of winning the judicial review in April and the judge has already ruled in our favour in chambers.”

Turning on Save Temple Cowley Pools, he added: “If you bear in mind the number of meetings facilitated between us and the campaigners, at every one of those meetings they refused to accept the reports commissioned by the council. I cannot see any particular value in having a meeting with people with whom you are diametrically opposed.”

PETITIONS

• Oxford City Council’s constitution means any petition which gathers 1,500 signatures or more must be debated at a meeting of full council.
• This does not prevent repeat petitions on the same subject and the council has said it has no intention of preventing the campaigners from submitting their petitions.
• October 2010 : A petition calling for the city council not to shut down Temple Cowley Pools, which gathered more than 12,000
• signatures
• April 2011: The second petition reached 2,600 signatures and called for the council to maintain the facility and keep it open
• July 2011: A third petition called on all Labour councillors to resign with immediate effect, as the campaign had lost confidence in them. It gathered more than 2,000
• signatures
• October 2012: The next petition had 1,865 signatures and again called for the scheme to stop, claiming the Labour administration had not moral mandate for it