In respect of your article “City can afford to build £16.8m pool) (Wednesday’s Oxford Mail), there are a couple of points that merit clarification.

First, the build-cost of the new pool is £8.5m (the figure you quote includes revenue costs over 25 years); this will be partly funded by the sale of the land upon which Temple Cowley sits.

A full refurbishment of Temple Cowley would cost more and there would be no capital receipt to help.

The truth is that, especially in the light of the horrendous cuts to local government, the city faces a choice – either to consolidate its pools on to one site, on the Leys, or end swimming provision in that part of Oxford altogether, by closing both Temple Cowley and Blackbird Leys pools without replacement.

When the issue was discussed in the council meeting, the more realistic half of the Lib Dem group did not oppose the view we took, one Lib Dem councillor left just before the vote claiming he was “very busy”, and the Green Party said that we shouldn’t focus on the financial aspects of the decision, which is pretty difficult to do when we face huge budget cuts.

Ed Turner Deputy Leader Oxford City Council