There has been a swimming pool on the Temple Cowley site since the early 1930s. In 1943 my mother held me up to see the swimmers in the first pool built there.

I went on to learn to swim there, and my schoolfriend Wendy and her then boyfriend did amazing stunts because, in those days, there were three diving boards, including a high diving board – which were all removed for health and safety reasons.

When the pool was rebuilt, a diving area was included, but was out of action almost from the start, due to cracked tiles. It was impossible to repair, or so I was told.

Temple Cowley must also be the only remaining pool in Oxford with separate male and female changing rooms.

Not everyone likes so-called ‘village changing’ as introduced at the Ferry and Barton pools, where there are mixed changing rooms and no proper shower facilities, where one can put one’s clothes or towel (leading to swimmers either showering in their costumes or drying off and going home un-showered).

An 89-year-old who loved swimming with the Oxford Swans ‘sheltered swim’ group at the Ferry Pool became hypothermic due to its cold water, developed a chest infection and has been unable to go swimming since.

Also, modern pools are built without a deep end, meaning divers here have to go to High Wycombe.

These mega, one size fits all, pools do not cater for everyone.

We need a range of smaller pools in different areas to provide the opportunity for everyone to be able to use them – not just the young, students, people from abroad and the wealthy.

Pat Ross, Bowness Avenue, Headington, Oxford