Fight to keep baths afloat

GETTING the message across . . . Joanne Lewis-Ryan (front right) and other members of Friends of Shaw Baths are striving to save the facility

AN aspiring group of swimmers is determined to save historic Crompton Pool.

Friends of Shaw Baths (FOSB), a voluntary organisation which hopes to run the pool as a community and charitable trust will be out in force this month to ask for support.

Oldham Council is set to close the building in 2014.

Joanne Lewis-Ryan, secretary, said: “We are passionate about Shaw and the baths as it is the focal point of the community; it deserves keeping. We need active support and volunteers to give their time to attend meetings, join the group and secure the baths for the community.

“Without help now it will be difficult for us to succeed.”

FOSB’s aim is to refurbish the baths and, in future, install a new leisure centre and pool behind the original 19th-century façade.

The group will be outside the baths on Farrow Street, Shaw, on Thursday and again on Thursday, June 20, asking locals to drum-up support.