Kenilworth outdoor pool closure will be debated again after councillors call for rethink

The council's executive voted to close the outdoor pool in Abbey Fields and replace it with an indoor training pool at a meeting on Wednesday January 9.

Campaigners Restore Kenilworth Lido had hoped the council would replace the pool with a larger, 25m lido.

But ahead of tomorrow's (Wednesday January 23) full council meeting, Cllr Alan Boad (Lib Dem, Crown), put forward an urgent motion calling on the executive to pause their decision and have a 'full and transparent evaluation of the potential for an outdoor swimming pool facility at Abbey Fields.'

His motion was supported by all Liberal Democrat and Labour councillors, as well as independent Cllr Sue Gallagher.

All councillors will now get a chance to have their say on the outdoor pool, rather than just the members of the executive.

Cllr Boad described the consultation on the council's plans for the pool, undertaken with residents in November, as 'a sham'.

He said: "The motion is in response to the executive’s delegated decision to proceed with an indoor pool, having ignored the clear majority of responders to a public consultation, designed they say, to seek the views of Kenilworth residents, who happened to favour an open air pool. It was clearly a sham consultation and didn’t even include the lido option."

November's consultation saw 41 per cent of respondents preferring to keep the outdoor pool as it is, with 32 per cent preferring an indoor pool and the rest having no preference.

A quarter of respondents also said they would like to see a new 25m lido, despite it not being an official option on the consultation.

Portfolio holder for leisure Cllr Michael Coker (Con, Abbey), previously said a new consultation on the plans would produce a similar result to the last one, and said the council 'had done all it could'.