The Telegraph & Argus today launches a campaign to sink consultants’ proposals to close four of the district’s community swimming pools.

There has been widespread alarm and anger at the threat – revealed exclusively in yesterday’s T&A – to pools in Bingley, Queensbury and Manningham, and to that at the Richard Dunn Sports Centre, where the replacement Odsal Sports Village plan does not currently include swimming.

The report for Bradford Council, by consultancy firm Strategic Leisure, was met with fury by Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe, who described the proposals as “ill-considered, short-sighted and damaging”.

We agree with him wholeheartedly and so, it seems, from the widespread public reaction, do many of our readers, which is why we are today launching our Save Our Swimming campaign in a bid to head off the closures.

We are asking YOU, our readers, to back the campaign by signing our petition calling on the Council to reject the proposals and to refurbish or rebuild the existing facilities.

The consultants’ report on swimming, part of a review of the district's sports and leisure facilities, does recommend that a competition standard swimming pool is built near Bradford city centre.

That part of the proposals, at least, can be welcomed: we have said for years that the city centre’s regeneration must include an improvement in cultural and leisure facilities if we are to encourage more people to live in it and use it.

But the building of a central pool should be seen as a showpiece addition to the district’s stock of swimming pools and not a replacement for ones which, in two of the four cases, have served their communities for more than a century.

The Council’s own usage figures show that almost 600,000 visits could be lost if the four pools – described in the authority’s own words as being "at risk" are shut.

Are those users, who in many cases include neighbourhood schools and local groups, going to be able to easily travel to the nearest surviving pool to continue their swims?

No less important is the fact that the loss of any swimming pool flies directly in the face of Government efforts to encourage people to become more active to improve the health of the nation.

Only last week, a particular emphasis was put on the importance of swimming by Culture Secretary Andy Burnham, who announced that free admission to the country’s pools will be made available to pensioners from next year, and that by 2012 – the year of the London Olympics – free swims will be available to all.

Without those facilities on people’s doorsteps, Bradford will not have the capacity to make a difference and will continue to boast one of the most obese populations in the country.

For too long, Bradford Council has paid lip-service to the sports and leisure needs of the people of this district. That must change – and saving these pools must be the first step.

  • To sign our petition click on the related link on the right