Gym fits the bill

Shaw Swimming Pool: Campaigners have welcomed plans

CAMPAIGNERS fighting to save Shaw’s swimming pool have welcomed plans to keep the site’s gym open for another three years.

Oldham Community Leisure, which runs sports centres across the borough, has submitted a planning application to Oldham Council for three-years’ permission to use the existing gym, housed in a portable cabin next to Crompton Pool, which is also known as Shaw Baths.

Oldham Council plans to close the baths once a new pool opens in Royton.

However, the closure proposal has sparked a campaign to keep the pool open, with plans for a future revamp.

Joanne Lewis-Ryan, secretary of the Friends of Shaw Baths, said: “We welcome this planning application which will keep all the facilities, wet and dry, operating at the pool. It’s a really good gym and lots of people use it.

“Although we oppose Oldham Council’s plan to close the pool once a new one is built in Royton, we are still very pleased with this planning application. The council had stipulated that it would keep the gym open until the Royton pool is built.”

More than 700 people have completed a questionnaire drawn-up by the Friends of Shaw Baths group — which was formed to fight the closure proposal — with the majority wanting the pool kept open.

An increasing number of pools have been transferred to “community enterprises” in recent years across the UK as councils’ leisure estates have been reduced.

The friends’ group wants to refurbish the baths and install a new leisure centre and pool in the future, while keeping the 19th-century façade.

Debbie Abrahams, MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth, was invited to see the baths earlier this year and John Irlam, vice-hairman of the campaign group, has held talks with Oldham Community Leisure about managing the site under an asset transfer arrangement.

The Royton pool is set to open in May, 2015, after the initial plans to open in September next year were shelved.
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