Page 1119 - Reading Mercury

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Thur 2 Nov
CAMPAIGN FAILS TO SAVE POOL
A desperate attempt to save Martin’s Pool failed on Monday when a motion to keep
the area in recreational use was thrown out. Even a petition with well over 6,000
signatures did not budge Tory councillors from rejecting the appeal to save
Wokingham’s historic outdoor swimming pool.
At a full meeting of Wokingham District Council, SLD councillor Keith Malvern
presented the petition—with 6,196 signatures—to council chairman Douglas
Goddard. But Tory councillors were adamant that the town could not support two
swimming pools and that the sale of Martin’s Pool site would help the cash-starved
council fund other capital programme items.
Recreation committee members are due to meet this week to discuss the reviewed
specifications for the new indoor swimming pool to be sited at the Carnival Field.
They will hear an officer’s recommendation to substantially reduce the budget for
what was originally intended as a showpiece indoor pool. Council officers have drawn
up a list of priorities which limit the new leisure complex to a six-lane, 25-metre pool,
a learner pool and beach area, sauna area and a small refreshment area. The new
facilities will be expected to meet a budget at today’s prices of £3.4 million—£1
million less than the previous budget.
The timescale for building the pool will be about a year behind the original schedule
after tenders came in at between £2 million and £3 million over the council’s
estimates in the first round of tendering earlier this year.
At Monday’s meeting Cllr. Malvern said the decision to close Martin’s Pool had
been taken ten years ago and was made on condition that the council built two new
swimming pools—one in Wokingham and the other in Earley. Cllr Malvern said that
he hoped that this council was in no doubt about the strength of feeling in the district
about Martin’s Pool.
Cllr. Pauline Hellier-Symens said, “There are about 30,000 people in Wokingham
and 150,000 in Wokingham district. If you present someone with a bit of paper in
front of them they will probably sign it anyway.”

STORM OVER ELMS FIELD LANDSCAPING
A 100-strong residents’ group has attacked Wokingham District Council claiming it
has “violated” or “ignored” its own planning consent conditions. Ellison Way
Management Company Ltd has written to the council demanding action over the
scheduled landscaping of the Elms Field recreation ground. Members say that when
part of the field was “torn up” for the construction of The Paddocks car park, a
condition of planning consent was that ground cover, tree and shrub planting would
take place in the first planting season after the civil engineering work was completed.
In his letter to council amenities officer, Gordon Bendall, residents’ chairman Dr.
Derek Gregory states: “We were told when the civil work was completed in March
1989 that the planting season was now over and that landscaping would commence in
October 1989. He adds: “We have had to complain three times since them about the
lack of mowing or other care to the temporary grass seeding that was carried out in
Elms Field in the spring, leaving the field in a deplorable state. Now with October
over, Dr. Gregory says, “Landscaping planting work has not yet commenced. We
believe you are now in violation of the planning consent.”
A council spokesman said that when the civil engineering work was completed in
March it was too late to start planting. Landscaping and planting at Elms Field would

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