Sir – During the current debate about swimming pool provision within Oxford city, there have been some comments made relating to non-city run swimming facilities including the University Swimming Pool in Iffley Road and what planning requirements were put in place before construction.

To clarify the exact position, there is no mention, nor in fact was there ever a request, to include city gala provision in the legal joint use agreement.

The main ‘community’ focus was free state school use in the mornings and a good community membership scheme. We believe that both of these aspects provide very good opportunities to the groups involved. The agreement also identifies the potential for up to six hours’ community swimming club use a week, but whilst we have always had good relations with OCSC we have never been able to find times that suited both their swimmers and our clubs’ and members’ needs.

We continue to have a good dialogue with the club and will work with them if at all possible going forward.

In terms of design and seating provision, we are based on a very tight site and although seating for major galas may have been useful at times, it came down to us choosing between having 150 seldom-used seats, or two more lanes of actual swimming space, which is of course what swimming pools are fundamentally for.

I hope this clarifies the University position, but if there are any direct questions about the pool and/or general sporting provision at Oxford University I am always happy to take any direct questions. Please e-mail me direct: jon.roycroft@sport.ox.ac.uk

Jon Roycroft, Director of Sport, Oxford University