Splashing time in Leominster
Water babies in the north of the county make a big splash when the new pool at Leominster was officially declared open on Saturday, January 14.
Keen swimmers in and around the town have been eagerly counting down the days and already, since the new pool was opened to the public on Tuesday, January 3, around 3,500 people have already taken a dip.
“This is an important day for people living in the north of the county,” said Cllr Roger Phillips, Leader of Herefordshire Council, which has put £2.25 million into the project.
“This has truly been a partnership project with the Council working closely with the WWOP campaign and local communities to give residents a first class facility and one which the people in the north of the county deserve.
“The additional £250,000 raised by the community who have worked steadfastly to raise this money which has effectively paid for an extra two lanes, a longer pool and a learning pool,” added Cllr Phillips.
The former Sydonia Pool was closed on health and safety grounds four years ago. Following the local government elections in May 2003, the new Council committed itself to building a new facility alongside the existing leisure centre.
Work on the new pool begun in 2004 and by the summer of that year soil for the pool’s tank had been excavated.
The steelwork arrived in autumn 2004 and by spring 2005 Leominster’s newest building could be seen on the town’s skyline.
The huge glass windows were installed and the thousands of tiles were in place by the end of the summer last year which left the tidying up and the commissioning of the new pool, which took place over the Christmas period.
“It’s taken us a while to get here, but it’s been worth it,” said Roger Hunt, Mayor of Leominster and Chairman of the We Want Our Pool campaign.
“The closure of the Sydonia pool affected many people both from Leominster and further afield. The WWOP group is delighted with the finished pool.
“However, this would not have been possible if it hadn’t been for the generous support of many, many people and I’d like to say a massive thank you to them all”.
The new facility has been handed over by the Council to halo Ltd, the Leisure Trust, which runs the leisure centres throughout the county.
The manager of the Leominster Leisure Centre, which incorporates the new pool, Hadyn Roberts, said he was proud to be able to make such a wonderful facility available to the public.
“This is a fantastic new pool which has already proved immensely popular, even though it’s been open to the public for less than two weeks,” he said.
“We’ve already got 17 schools lined up for lessons and swimming sessions; we’ve already had 3,500 people through the door coming in for a swim, and we’ve got bookings from a number of groups which will use the pool for lessons and other activities.
“We have currently had a great deal of interest in our children’s learn to swim programme and have currently had more than 520 people book onto it.
“The old Sydonia pool was immensely popular and fondly thought of. However, people in the north of the county now have a state-of-the art pool fit for the 21st century.
“This includes clean, modern changing facilities, along with an innovative way of keeping the water clean.
“The days of high chlorine levels in the water making people’s eyes water is gone – we’ve got a new ultraviolet system for cleansing the water at the new pool,” added Hadyn.
To mark the official opening of the new pool on Saturday, January 14, community celebrations took place in the town.
They kicked off in the morning with the performance of “Splash Out,” a specially commissioned piece of music. A water-themed procession, involving local schools, music, fish, dance, bathing costumes and bubbles, then snaked its way through the town, via Corn Square, to arrive at the new pool for the official opening at 1pm.
Cllr Roger Phillips, Roger Hunt and Denise Pugh officially declared the new pool open, and Cllr Phillips then blew a whistle to start the first race in the pool – by members of the Kingfishers Swimming Club.
