A bid for a a swimming pool to be built in Bromyard have been dealt a blow after a planning application was refused by Herefordshire Council.
Planning officers from the Council’s Northern Area Committee opted to reject the plans, which were submitted by the Bromyard and District Swimming Pool Trust, for a pool to be built off Hardwick Close in the town.
A report into the decision levelled a number of criticisms at the details of the bid and said that officials “were not satisfied” with the need for a swimming pool in the town.
It said: “The evidence provided by Sport England demonstrates that there is an over-provision of water space within Herefordshire.
Any additional water space will have a negative impact on existing facilities both inside the county and within Malvern Hills District Council.”
The report also identified the application’s location as “not suitable” for such a facility.
It said: “It would not be possible to conveniently access the swimming pool by modes other than personal transport and, therefore, the proposal is considered to be unsustainable.
“The proposal will result in increased traffic and person movements within close proximity to a residential area.
“This will be detrimental to the residential amenity of dwellings in the locality and particularly Hardwick Close.”
“Their reasons, are very poor,” said Pool Trust Chairman Bill Gibbard.
“There is a trust meeting in the next two or three weeks when we will decide what we’re going to do but I think we should appeal.
“I can’t understand why they would fail us, ours will be a community pool for everybody.”
Mr Gibbard also said that he has been contacted by a independent campaigner from Ipswich who is calling on the government to improve the provision of swimming facilities across the country.
The long-running saga began in the 1980s when plans for a pool at the, then, Queen Elizabeth High School were rejected by governors and has re-appeared in various forms over the last decade.
The decision has angered a number of local residents who claim they are being increasingly marginalised when it comes to the provision of public services.
The nearest pool is located at Leominster, which was opened in 2006 at a cost to tax-payers of £2.25 million and topped up by a local fund raising effort which donated £250,000.
The decision coincides with the news that Ledbury Swimming Pool is to receive a £600,000 refurbishment which is estimated to start as soon as January 2009.
