700 back calls to save Pitsea pool (From Echo)

they should give pitsea pool the revamp!!! NOT get rid of it..... i take my children to pool every week and eldest in in swimming lessons there... about time the council started listening to what us locals want instead of ignoring us!!! xx

I started this petition as I believed a lot of people felt the same. I am close to a 1000 signatures now and I am hoping this will send a strong message to a council who seem indifferent to local peoples needs.

If you want to be involved please email me at AffectedByPitseaRege
n (at) gmail (dot) com

I would love it if I achieved the magic figure of 5000 signatures. The council would then have to call a session to debate the issue. I can only do this is if I have some help, so far I and 5 other people are spending as much spare as we can collecting signatures in the area.

Even if we cant change this we can show the council how passionately we feel about this.

Good luck with the campaign to save the pool and getting your signatures. The 29 Basildon Conservatives councillors took no notice of some 1300 resident signatures raised in a week to save Kent View Recreation Ground, Vange. They also ignored 450 plus protesters outside the council offices last August and even though it was debated again at a full council meeting still refused to save it. They also ignore various other resident appeals on other children’s playing fields proposed for development as well.

Unfortunately I therefore doubt they will do little if anything to save Pitsea pool, especially as they want to force everyone to use their Sporting Village which Gloucester Park and other fields have paid a high price for.

The council’s deputy leader to justify the field sales to fund the Sporting Village advised children need somewhere to swim and he for one couldn’t have it on his conscience if a child drowned because they couldn’t learn to swim so what about the children of Pitsea?? Also Conservative Councillor Ann Blake the ward councillor that Pitsea pool sits in is up for re-election this May, has she nothing to say about saving the pool?? and what about her Councillor husband Kevin Blake cabinet member for leisure and arts who has not said one word against the proposed playing field sales, does he not want the pool saved??? Pitsea residents who live in the Pitsea South East ward should be asking them both what they are doing to save this needed swimming pool??

I don't know many who agreed with Southend pool being moved to Garons but it happened anyway. The council will do what they like then moan about there being nothing for the kids to do in Pitsea.

I applaud the idea of the regeneration, but DO object to the proposed loss of our local public swimming pool. What I believe to be ill publicised proposals for the scheme were presented at the Pitsea Leisure Centre during November, with a meagre and unrepresentative attendance of some 157 (quoting the Echo online), claiming that a majority of those people were in favour of the regeneration plans. This would hardly represent the community’s opinion as a whole, and I hope the council are taking notice of the numerous objections and concerns being raised in blogs and by other means, importantly including the demolition of PITSEA SWIMMING POOL, in order to make way for the new Morrisons.
The success of the petition being raised against the closure of the pool tells us that losing the pool in Pitsea is an extremely unpopular idea; that while many support the areas regeneration, they do NOT want the pool facility taken away from them. The community needs it. The only alternative facility (when available to the public) being at the Basildon Sporting Village, and this is entirely not suitable to many who live in Pitsea. It is too far away and awkward to reach if you don’t have a car, thereby making visits very expensive and an unwelcome and inconvenient alternative. Especially for those who are disadvantaged in some way, whether that be financially or physically. Pitsea community NEEDS a LOCAL, smaller, welcoming pool, essential to all sorts of people, which is easy to reach and acceptable; local schools (who have to provide swimming lessons as part of the national curriculum for key stage 2 children), those with learning difficulties, the elderly and disabled, mothers with children, busy little families seeking/needing some fun time together - and those of us living hectic lives who need a local pool for exercise. Exercise, which the Government is constantly telling us we need to take. And we already have a pool. Money should be spent REFURBISHING it instead, encouraging attendance and benefiting the local community.
I realise of course that the introduction of Morrisons in to the area is an essential part of the regeneration scheme. But plans can be revisited and adjusted, compromises made. I also suspect that Pitsea Swimming Pool has long been seen by the council as a financial thorn in its side, and that they would be only too willing to be rid of its burden, seeing this as an ideal opportunity. It has disgustingly been left to decay and rot, and STILL people remain loyal to it. Alternatively, build a new pool in Pitsea; make that PART of the regeneration scheme. Why should we have to accept having the regeneration OR be WITHOUT a pool? Surely one of the most important reasons for the regeneration is to IMPROVE the welfare of the community and NOT take important facilities away from it? AND for the council to take note and act on popular opinion.

I have already lodged my objection to this scheme as it stands but feel I must raise my concerns in relation to the process. I understand that the proposals were presented at the Pitsea Leisure Centre in November, which clearly was not well publicised as I have found nobody around here, and I have spoken to a number, who was aware of it until after the event if at all. The Echo ran a story on 8th of January indicating that the majority of people who were lucky enough to attend, 157 I believe (hardly representative of the Pitsea Community), were in favour. The canvassing I and others have undertaken over the last few weeks and the comments on the Pitsea Regeneration website do not bear this out, indeed the website comments are in excess of 8/1 against the proposals as they stand, feel free to verify for yourselves.
The main area of concern is the loss of the SWIMMING POOL. While many would welcome the arrival of Morrisons, they do not want that to be at the expense of the pool, which despite the arrival of the new complex at the Sporting Village (inaccessible to those without a car) is very well used by all age groups and in walking distance of local schools. A petition against the closure of the pool is underway and will be presented to the council in a couple of weeks. Something certainly needs to be done at Pitsea but it should enhance community facilities, not demolish them

with a meagre and unrepresentative attendance of some 157 (quoting the Echo online), claiming that a majority of those people were in favour of the regeneration plans. This would hardly represent the community’s opinion as a whole

that's as maybe but it is representative of the 'few' people that bothered to turn up and have a look and make a small effort to leave comments regarding the proposed development. It's not that the exhibition/presentat
ion wasn't advertised either as it was in th efree local rags and in the Echo.

Last time the 'good folk' of Pitsea were asked if they wanted redevelopment of an portion of their shopping area, i.e. the Pets at Home/Farm foods building following it's destruction by fire they voted to have it exactly the same as it was previously rather than an enhanced replacement building. The 'meagre' turnout at the Leisure Centre for this latest proposal at least had the forward looking attitude to think that the plans have some merit even though many there seemd to be of the opinion that the swimming pool really ought to be spared.

Well done, those 157 people who bothered to turn up to the meeting, your efforts and comments left regarding the regeneration to be applauded and respected. But it doesn’t always necessarily follow that because you might not be one of the people who read the local newspapers with a view of deciding to attend representation meetings (or have the time to attend) that you don’t care what happens in your community - or that once your opinion in known it shouldn’t be taken in to consideration. I didn’t “turn up”. It wasn’t that I couldn’t be bothered, and I support the regeneration, but nevertheless, I don’t want to lose necessary facilities within the community, like the swimming pool. Nor do a lot of other people.