Splashing Around is Disarray

There are always pressures on local authorities. Lots of things competing for their atention, their support and above all their ever scare money.

I do understand that. I really do.

But what is it about local authorities that makes them so incapable of dealing effectively with swimming pools?

Last month Sedgemoor District Council in Somerset dealt the death knell to their popular "Sedgemoor Splash" pool in favour of a new Tesco and now - after an equally valiant fight -Dudley Council in the West Midlands have decided that, no, Coseley Baths must go too. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/8230207.stm .

Yes, they are expensive to run and to maintain. But they are, like street lights, parks, refuse collections and libraries, "services we maintain for the common good". In any case, swimming pools are a basic, simple and healthy way of keeping people of all ages entertained and occupied.

Yes, money is tight for councils. It is for everyone at the moment. That's presumably why, at their meeting on 13 July 2009, Dudley's Councillors voted to increase their basic pay from £7,419 to £9,300. Then they backdated it to April 2009.

And they wonder why they're unpopoular.