Scartho Baths closure: MPs Austin Mitchell and Martin Vickers to make new plea to council
LOCAL MPs Austin Mitchell and Martin Vickers will today make a fresh plea for the council to reconsider its decision to close Scartho Baths.
They are due to speak in an adjournment debate on the subject in Westminster Hall this afternoon, which will be attended by sports minister Hugh Robertson.
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Scartho Baths battle: MP Martin Vickers, inset, is keen for the council to stop, reconsider and look at the other options available.
They will be making the case for refurbishing the existing Scartho Road facility and also asking if Olympic Legacy funding can be made available to support such a scheme.
Both MPs backed the campaign to save the 50-year-old swimming pool after North East Lincolnshire Council announced it would be replaced by a brand new pool and leisure centre on the Cromwell Road site.
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Even after the council confirmed the closure last month, Mr Mitchell encouraged protesters to fight on, while Mr Vickers urged the council to put the brakes on the project so it could bid for Olympic Legacy cash.
The council has always maintained that it will consider adding a diving facility to the new pool if government funding is forthcoming.
However, Mr Vickers said that by "rushing ahead" with the scheme, the council was effectively shutting the door to that possibility.
Speaking yesterday, Mr Vickers, who called the debate, said: "Although the minister has no actual responsibility for the decision he can give the government perspective on the importance of sports facilities locally.
"It's really an opportunity for us to urge the council yet again to stop, reconsider and look at the other options that are available. Bearing in mind that it would seem public opinion is against what is proposed and that the council is quite reasonably saying to the government that it has got a bad financial settlement, is it really advisable to be spending £8 million on a facility when the majority of the electorate think it would be far better to spend £2 or £3 million upgrading the existing facility?"
Mr Vickers said there would also be opportunity to ask the minister if Olympic Legacy funding would be available, adding: "I have already discussed that with the sports minister and I do know contact has been made between the council and the government."
Great Grimsby MP Mr Mitchell, pictured, said: "We are going to relay the argument that the council should try to see if we can do the whole thing more effectively and more cheaply. I'm not convinced yet that it is impossible to keep Scartho Baths.
"There is an Olympic Legacy fund and we want to try to tap into that to ease the pressure on the local authority and the minister will be able to tell us what help government can provide."
Comments
by GRIM_oldie
Wednesday, January 16 2013, 9:47AM
“Having followed the council's performance throughout this issue, it is patent that they have an agenda that has absolutely nothing to do with the wishes of the electorate and the users of Scartho Baths.
Further, they appear to be abetted in their obfuscatory diversdions from fact by the local press.
Scartho Baths is a structure of great significance to the people of Grimsby and the surrounding area, both emotionally and environmentally. The building and its surrounding area, 'Barrett's Field' [I refuse to use the council's ill-spelt, ungrammatical rendering "BARRATTS Recreation Ground], compose a heritage from beyond living memory for many.
The Grimsby Telegraph has a portfolio of photographs that beautifully put Scartho Baths in their environment, so just two questions:
Why the persistent use of the solitary abysmal photograph of a car park that could be almost anywhere? Is the G-Tel in cahoots with the council in running down this important feature of Grimsby society?
And that brings us to the matter of what appears to have been the intentional dilapidation of the baths...
I think another time for that -- both chapter and verse!! Soon, maybe.”
by stujaffray
Tuesday, January 15 2013, 11:26PM
“Well said Beagleyes and GerrySixties , you speak for most of the people of N E Lincs , it is high time Cllr Shaw took notice of the electorate ! Save The Baths Group intend to do just that , with the help of our two local MPs working together for the electorate of N E Lincs .”
by Beagleyes
Tuesday, January 15 2013, 9:45PM
“Having read the text from the comments made by both MPsin London today I do wonder if Nelc has really been as transparent in the reasons for closing Scartho baths
Both MPs raised some valid points about the closure and what would be useful would be for NELC to give a full and open response thru the telegraph in answering those issues raised in London
When you get two local MPs from opposite parties agreeing with one another then that is the time to sit up and listen
If ever there was time for total transparency now is the time
Over to you Nelc”
by GerrySixties
Tuesday, January 15 2013, 10:34AM
“There is concerted opposition to NELC proposals for a new pool - so they go ahead with their plans anyway. Doesn't public opinion count in these parts? Not one party has a mandate from the electorate for this proposal. There are so many development projects down the years which similarly never had an electoral mandate. Why should a small number hold influence and reject majority opinion?”