White elephant

This highlights that over the next four years the council will be spending £68m.

While most of that will be spent on improving Barton estate, it would seem that spending £16m, plus interest as the money has to be borrowed, thus increasing Oxford City Council debt, for a new competition standard size swimming pool, with fun water areas etc at Blackbird Leys is not a priority, nor is it likely to be used much.

Blackbird Leys already has a relatively new indoor pool and is not demanding a better one. Indeed there is concern as to whether the residents can continue to afford to use the present one.

Whereas the residents around Temple Cowley are campaigning to keep their swimming pool, which can be renovated for £3m.

Surely at this time when we are all being asked to cut back, splashing out on a new pool for Blackbird Leys is something that could be postponed.

If another pool is to be built, an open-air one for Barton would be more cost effective and give a lot of enjoyment to that neighbourhood.

Consolidating what we do have: keeping our libraries open, our youth centres running, making sure we can afford to go swimming in local pools, is what the majority of Oxford citizens want and not a white elephant swimming pool, that most of us will neither appreciate nor use.

Rosanne Bostock, Oxford