6:53pm Tuesday 6th January 2009
By Chris Walker
Oxford's Peers Sports Centre is set to be demolished within two years to pave the way for new facilities at the city’s first academy school, it has been confirmed.
But swimmers have said they are disappointed developers of the new £32m Oxford Academy have no plans to incorporate a pool at the new school.
Pool users have fought for two years to keep the Sandy Lane West pool open, but developers expect to start bulldozing the sports centre in late 2010.
Pat Ross, 69, who has swum at the pool for more than 20 years, said: “This is a shock. We value this pool enormously and it would be a huge shame if they just demolished the building. I’m absolutely dismayed by this decision. An awful lof of people are going to miss this pool.
“It’s such a good place for older people to swim. We like it because it has warmer water than the others and the staff are so friendly.”
When the pool closes, swimmers could use alternative pools at Blackbird Leys or Temple Cowley.
Mrs Ross, of Bowness Avenue, in Headington, who is part of the long-running Skylarks Sunday swimming group at the pool, said: “How can you have a sports academy without a swimming pool? I think they’re being very short-sighted.”
In 2007/08 the sports centre was used by more than 60,000 people a year, according to council figures.
In September, the city council pumped in £375,000 to keep it open for a further two years giving hope to users of its three squash courts and sports hall which hosts badminton, basketball and five-a-side football.
The Oxford Academy – also in Sandy Lane West – a specialist school in maths, IT and sport, is set to provide a new floodlit all-weather pitch, new tennis facilities, a dance studio and gymnasium for community use, but not a pool.
Kathleen Dean, from Cowley, who attends the centre’s over-50s weekend swim sessions on Saturdays, said: “People will be very sad to hear this. Everyone is being encouraged to keep fit these days but now we won’t have this facility to do it in.”
Councillor John Tanner, part of the Save Peers campaign group, said: “It’s a tragedy. The city council put in the money to keep the pool open in response to the public campaign to save it because we wanted to give the academy the option of having a swimming pool.
“Now the academy has decided it isn’t an effective option.
Academy Principal Mike Reading said: “It isn’t a realistic option to keep the current pool open.
“We would love to have a new swimming pool here. We have no disagreement to that but the costs of a new pool makes it prohibitive.”
The pool employs eight full- and part-time staff and a council spokesman said that if these posts become redundant they will do their best to find staff other positions.
cwalker @oxfordmail.co.uk
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