Petition calls for town pool

Shirebrook resident Nora Simons is petitioning for a swimming baths in the town, Nora is pictured with her petition

A Shirebrook pensioner has collected almost a thousand signatures calling for Bolsover District Council to build a swimming pool in the town.

The move comes partly as a protest to a council proposal to build one as part of an enhanced sports facility in Clowne.

A new Clowne pool would be part of a money-saving scheme to bridge a government funding gap of £1.5m in the next two years.

Nora Simons (81), of Lynden Street, said Shirebrook folk had been requesting a pool for more than 60 years.

“Young people have nowhere to go so they just go round boozing,” she said. “The town never gets any money spent on it and looks run down so yo get all kinds of anti-social behaviour.

“Why can’t they just extend Kissingate Leisure Centre here?”

A Bolsover District Council spokesman said Clowne Sports Centre was a relatively new facility with enough land to expand and the required infrastructure already in place.

And the plans, which were still just part of a district-wide consultation, were part of a strategy to make facilities self-sustaining.

Meanwhile, a report has highlighted that Creswell Leisure Centre needs significant investment just to maintain its current operations.

Cabinet Member for Social Inclusion, Coun Ann Syrett said: “Initial costings have shown that if we improve the facilities at Clowne and cease our current operations at Creswell Leisure Centre then we could save in excess of four million pounds over the next twenty years.”

At this stage the future of Creswell Leisure Centre has not been decided, but options such as other organisations taking over the management and operation of the facility, operating the without a swimming pool or selling it to a private developer are all being looked at.

The council spokesman said: “We are currently preparing a consultation that will be posted out towards the end of September asking for people’s views on the proposal, so until these results and comments have been analysed no decision will be made.”