Labour quashes hopes of retaining leisure facilities on Temple Cowley Pool site

At this week's meeting of Oxford City Council, Labour failed to support a motion from Green Councillors which sought to guarantee continued leisure uses on the re-developed Temple Cowley Pool site.

The vote followed a series of appeals to Councillors from Temple Cowley Pool campaigners who had formed a Community Interest Company with the aim of bidding for the site.

Green Party Councillor Revd Dick Wolff, who is also minister of the United Reformed Church next to the pool site, saw his motion  first watered down by a Liberal Democrat amendment and then finally rejected by Labour.

Dick commented, “The original decision to close the pools was bad enough, but now we can see that the Council Administration have been stringing people along and raising false hopes.  This will undermine the whole vitality of the Temple Road district centre.”