Pensioners strip off to save Scartho Baths swimming pool
TWO pensioners have stripped down to their swimming costumes in opposition to the closure of Scartho Baths.
Both Ann Taylor and Stuart Jaffray have been rallying support by braving the cold in their swim wear to collecting signatures for a petition against the proposal.
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POOL PROTEST: Swimmer Ann Taylor is petitioning to save Scartho Baths from closure. Picture: Abby Ruston
Their protest came as North East Lincolnshire Council leader Chris Shaw pledged that if a petition were presented to the council the matter would be reviewed by a scrutiny committee.
However, he said that the borough could only afford to support three pools so, unless additional funding could be found, one of the four – Immingham, Cleethorpes, Scartho or Cromwell Road – would have to be closed down.
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He said that as Immingham was "out on a limb" and the Cleethorpes pool was "profitable" neither of them were in line for closure – and that the choice between Cromwell Road and Scartho had been made in February.
As reported, the pool in Scartho Road will close in about two years' time and a new facility will be built as part of a £7.5 million project at Grimsby Leisure Centre, featuring a 25-metre pool and a new gym.
However, Mrs Taylor and Mr Jaffray feel so strongly that NELC has made the wrong choice, yesterday they donned their swim wear and stood outside the swimming pool in Scartho Road and Tesco in Hewitts Circus Retail Park, Cleethorpes, collecting names.
Mrs Taylor, 69, of Chichester Road, Cleethorpes, said: "I use the pool five times a week and we are hoping to prevent it from closing.
"The pool and everything that comes with it serves the local community really well and, not only that, but it is centrally located.
"There has been a lot of talk about the Olympic Legacy encouraging people to take up sport but the closure of Scartho Baths goes totally against this.
"The council has said that the pool is old and tired but figures have not been released saying how much it would cost to refurbish or build a new one on the same site.
"In fact, there is very little information about the development for the public to access.
"A lot of people are coming to me to sign the petition and they are all annoyed by the announcement. The proposed new pool at Cromwell Road will be small, not as well equipped and it will be less accessible.
"I believe that if the land is sold it will be used for housing and this really does sadden me.
"If the pool closes it really will take a lot away from the area and the town."
Retired postmaster Mr Jaffray, 73, of Scartho Road, added: "We have more than 1,000 names opposing the closure of Scartho Baths.
"I have been standing outside the baths myself in my swimming gear with the petition.
"When the pool closes we are going to be losing a lot of facilities and the council is trying to push the whole thing through.
"I am angry that they have taken the decision to do this without consulting anyone.
"If they have to rebuild the pool, why do they not do it in the same place and make it better?
"I am a regular user of the pool but the reason I have got involved and collected names is for the future generations and for the people of Grimsby."
Fellow pool user Christine Easton of Redwood Drive, Cleethorpes, said: "I have signed the petition because I don't want the pool to close.
"The new one won't be the same size or have the same facilities.
"I use the pool a lot and it is a great shame if it cannot be saved."




Comments
by Philip5957
Tuesday, March 19 2013, 4:12PM
“Not long ago a Hull councillor said Chris Shaw was suffering from paranoid megalomania.
There are now 9500 people in N. E. Lincs who now believe he was right and that Mick Burnett is having the same problem. They should be sent back to the circus with the rest of the clowns.
With 8 million less from the Government, the council having to save another 14 million, services cut to the young, the people in hardship and the cuts to all the services to the old, who do not know whether to Eat or Heat, anyone who wants to spend 8million on a new swimming pool must have peanuts for brains.
He needs to come clean about the whole saga. What is he hiding? The whole thing smells of a fiddle and illegality.
Where is the 8 million coming from?
He is already using the reserve fund; it will not be long before that has all gone. Labours Gordon Brown bankrupt the country Labours Chris Shaw will bankrupt N. E. Lincs.
He needs to let people see the surveys done on Scartho Pool.
He needs to say if he is going to sell Barratts for housing which would need a new road entrance where the pool is.
Why has building the new pool not being put out to tender when other firms say they can build it cheaper?
Has the company chosen to build the pool any links to any Labour Councillor?
A lot of people think that the whole idea of a new pool originated from Belfour Beatty
Who hope to get a lot of the work, so the question must be asked? Has the building company any links to, or is part of the Belfour Beatty Group? The arrogant bombastic attitude of the man in the way he is treating the people and the way he talks to other none Labour councillors shows he is not fit to run the council let alone a car boot stall.
The whole idea of building a new pool should be legally investigated and if necessary taken to the High Court, our two local MPs who are also against the idea should make sure it happens to stop the utter waste of money.”
by MalcomsMate
Saturday, October 06 2012, 10:55AM
“This should not be allowed to fade from the front page.”
by MalcomsMate
Thursday, September 27 2012, 8:59PM
“I hope all you casual browsers are leaving this site to go to the savescarthobaths site!!”
by ImmArthur
Thursday, September 27 2012, 3:38PM
“To pick up on Malcolm'sMate theme, isn't this the ex-Titan's Stu Jaffray. Lab beagle of the Gods?
Arthur, Immingham”
by ErnieBrown
Wednesday, September 26 2012, 11:01AM
“We're not and never have been asking for a shiny new, very expensive pool...just for the current Great Grimsby Swimming Pool to be refurbished. This should have been happening as a matter of course over the last few decades and would ultimately have saved NELC many millions of £'s. NELC would then not need to be proposing to deprive thousands of people who live in that area of town, of much needed health facilities.
For a young family with a couple of kids, to travel from Sutcliffe Ave to the site of the proposed new smaller play pool and back , would take four bus journeys and would more than double the cost of taking the young 'uns for a swim.”
by Davex66
Saturday, September 22 2012, 1:33PM
“We must have had at least 20 posts from 1812o and we still don't know anything about his opinions on the subject of this thread.
As a member of the public Ernie Brown is entitled to an opinion, and he is man enough to put his own name to it, and on this occasion as on many others Ernie has backed his words with deeds - unlike trolls such as 1812o.
I have reached the conclusion that 1812o suffers from the keyboard form of Tourette's - does anyone know of a cure?”
by Grimlander
Friday, September 21 2012, 8:41PM
“**1812o -- Fri, Sep 21, 2012, 1:31PM
Still off the point. Your comments still nothing to do with apolitical locals, determined to stop the voracious destructiveness of NE£incs Council [like its forerunners, come to that]. And to pass you your own petard, WHO are you? WHO do YOU represent? We know who Ernie Brown is and we don't need a picture. Where's YOURS?
Incidentally, everybody who needs to know, knows what I look like, because I meet them. Similarly with Ernie Brown. How about you?”
by 1812o
Friday, September 21 2012, 1:31PM
“This isn't off the point when Petition Man is playing at politics but will never be elected:
"It looks like our Ernie hopes to get elected by the photo shoot method and particularly holding a petition or a rake
http://tinyurl.com/8qhkj2t
Sorry but the DimLebs are going to be consigned to history:
CON 34%
LAB 43%
LDEM 8% Heading for Oblivion
UKIP 8%.
Here are a group of DimLebs undergoing post election training:
http://tinyurl.com/8vs55l3
And Calamity thinks he'll avoid the drop by apologising for breaking THE PLEGE.
NO WAY WILL IT BE ACCEPTED!”
by diane38
Friday, September 21 2012, 1:03PM
“Why dont the council use some of our money they have saved and nearly lost when the Iceland bank went bust, what are they saving it for?, if theres ever a time its now and in the coming years,give the people of Grimsby what they want and need”
by Grimlander
Friday, September 21 2012, 7:14AM
“**1812o -- Thur, Sep 20 2012, 7:20AM**
You're a bit off the point there aren't you -- to put it mildly? Your political tirade appears to have absolutely nothing to do with: **Pensioners strip off to save Scartho Baths...**
**YOU NO LISSERN!**
Please pay attention and make contributions that a checked against 'fact' as purveyed by the council and FACTS as stated by contributors to this thread -- here's one:
¶¶ Ernie Brown has an apolitical allegiance to Scartho Baths and his fight to prevent green-field [NOT "Green-Belt"!!] developments when there's enough to occupy a Vitruvius for a thousand years in the town of Grimsby/Cleethorpes -- especially in the context of a horde of unfulfilled "Masterplans" emanating from Town Hall Square and 'The Council House'¶¶
Have you ever had conversation with the man?
This, here, is about ELECTED REPRESENTatives of ALL political stripe who DO NOT LISSERN and cause irreparable damage to Grimland -- AND its people!! Please read ALL councillor-statements re Scartho Baths and then tell us that they [the councilors] are REAL!
Meanwhile, support the petition at the Web site : w w w dot save scartho baths dot com [but no spaces ¡-)]
or actually at the baths -- where you'd be able to learn genuinely from Ernie Brown.”