Limerick town rallies over pool closure
MEMBERS of Askeaton Swimming Club have urged Limerick City and County Council to “find a better way” to proceed with the proposed 12 month closure of their local pool.
A large turnout attended the public meeting held in Askeaton Community Hall after the sudden closure announcement of the swimming pool was met with concern by many pool users.
Club officials said that progress was made at the meeting last Thursday, as councillors who attended agreed on revisiting the issue with decision makers in order to avoid a lengthy shutdown period of the popular amenity.
Speaking about the public meeting’s outcome, Gerard O’Sullivan, PRO of Askeaton Swimming Club said: “Everyone accepts that improvement works need to be done in the pool, people have been anticipating that for years, but the lack of a contractor or no fixed contract in place is what people cannot understand.
“Two things came out of the meeting: the first was that we are asking the councillors to go back to the Council and look at the timeline in order to minimise closure durations and the second is to consider the financial implications of this closure,” said Mr O'Sullivan.
“Swimming pools, not just in Askeaton, need money to run and they tend to just break even on the day-to-day running costs -if monies are needed to keep this public amenity, for the whole of West Limerick, open then the funds are needed too,” he explained.
The main points of reconsideration that were put forward to councillors included the lengthy closure period, the non-negotiable fashion in which members of the public were delivered the news and the financial implications of the sudden closure of the pool.
While the club PRO notes that councillors are now ‘committed to going back to the drawing board’ following the concerns raised in the meeting, he also said “They (councillors) need to find a better way of doing this”.
Acknowledging the support shown for the cause via the turnout, he added: “There was a great representation at the meeting,
“There were clubs there, elderly and youth swimmers were represented, and there were many people from private industries who gave examples of how works like this can be done in a tight timeframe to minimise, or even avoid, closures.”