Kenilworth outdoor pool campaigners present petition to council ahead of closure vote

Campaigners hoping to save Kenilworth's outdoor pool from closure presented a petition to the chief executive officer of Warwick District Council this morning (Tuesday) ahead of a key vote on the plans tomorrow.
The petition being presented by Restore Kenilworth Lido campaigners to Chris Elliott, CEO of Warwick District Council. From left: Clive Peacock, Chris Elliott, Hansje te Velde and George Jones.The petition being presented by Restore Kenilworth Lido campaigners to Chris Elliott, CEO of Warwick District Council. From left: Clive Peacock, Chris Elliott, Hansje te Velde and George Jones.
The petition being presented by Restore Kenilworth Lido campaigners to Chris Elliott, CEO of Warwick District Council. From left: Clive Peacock, Chris Elliott, Hansje te Velde and George Jones.

The council revealed its plans to replace the current outdoor pool with an indoor training pool in December following a public consultation.

Campaign group 'Restore Kenilworth Lido' had hoped the council would instead turn the outdoor pool into a 25m outdoor lido, which they say would bring more tourism into Kenilworth.

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This option was not directly included in the consultation - although around 25 per cent of respondents still made reference to it.

When asked which of the council's options they prefer, 41 per cent of respondents said they wanted to keep the outdoor pool as it is, 32 per cent said they favoured the indoor pool, and the rest expressed no preference.

A public meeting was held on Saturday January 5 where attendees called on the council to defer its final decision, which is likely to take place tomorrow (Wednesday).

The group also formed a petition, which read: "We the undersigned note that the consultation undertaken in November 2018 did not include, alongside other proposals, an option to build a 25m outdoor pool in Abbey Fields.

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"Therefore, we call upon the executive to defer any decision about the future of the Abbey Fields leisure facilities until there has been a full and proper consultation about such an option."

The petition was delivered to Warwick District Council's chief executive officer Chris Elliott at Riverside House in Leamington this morning by Restore Kenilworth Lido campaigners Clive Peacock, George Jones and Hansje te Velde.

Clive Peacock said: "There were in excess of 500 names on the petition - we wanted around 1,000 but we weren't at it long enough."

Warwick District Council's executive will vote on whether to go forward with the plans at a meeting tomorrow (Wednesday January 9).

The meeting takes place at 6pm in Leamington Town Hall - all are welcome to attend.