Harborne families fear for swimming baths plan
Harborne residents claim they are no nearer getting their long-awaited new swimming pool despite council promises.
They say by “lumping” the £12 million baths along with two other big swimming projects theirs could be delayed even further.
Last month the city council approved plans to spend £84.5 million on three swimming centres in Birmingham.
Around £60 million will go on a new 50-metre Olympic pool by the NIA, while £24 million will be split between Harborne’s new baths and refurbishing Stechford’s Cascades complex.
But residents told a packed Harborne ward committee combining their project with the two others meant “delay, upon delay, upon delay”.
Phil Stokes, secretary of the Harborne Society, said they had campaigned for seven years and thought they had made genuine progress when the council approved the plan in December.
He said: “Harborne is the most simple, do-able scheme but I’m concerned that aligning it with the others will set it back.
“The Harborne pool scheme is already well down the track, whereas the 50m pool is barely, if at all, even on the starting blocks.”
He said campaigners were concerned they would not meet their targets of submitting a planning application in June, starting on site next January, with completion by December 2011.
But council officer Julie Leah told the meeting they were still on track to meet all the deadlines, apart from the planning application which may not be submitted until after it has been formally approved by Cabinet in September. She said putting three schemes together gave them the best chance of obtaining funding.
