Tories plans to close Rossendale's baths should be sunk!

After the recent Cabinet meeting that considered options to bail out the Valley's Leisure Trust - which is currently running at a financial loss of 400K per annum - the Lib Dems have bitterly criticised the proposal to close at least one of the valley's public swimming baths.

At a packed Town Hall full of opponents of such a decision, the leader of the Council was forced to back down from asking his Cabinet to make a final decision, instead deferring it to a full public consultation, with a final verdict to be passed at February's full meeting of Council.

Local Haslingden Councillor Catherine Pilling spoke at the meeting and was equally as incensed at the plans, 'This is the wrong plan for Haslingden and we seem to be falling foul here of the ruling Tories inability to seriously get a grip of the Leisure Trust's finances. They have now been in control of this council for several years and there is no denying that the current predicament facing leisure is solely their responsibility; they cannot hide from this sad indictment.'

Cllr Jim Pilling, who also attended the meeting, offered two alternatives for the Cabinet to think about in order to salvage the situation and prevent these grossly unpopular closures from happening. He said, 'We are highly critical of the ruling group's financial management, but, at the moment, we are more concerned about sorting the problem out. We have put forward two constructive alternatives to be considered to get us to a more preferred outcome.

We are saying that an increase in Council tax of 11p a week per household is all that is needed to save the baths in the short term. Surely this is an option that should be put before the people of Rossendale.

'We have also put forward the possibility of a developer taking on the burden of the continuing shortfall on a temporary basis, keeping the baths open until the future new baths are delivered at Haslingden Lifestyle Centre, in exchange for an option on the real estate in the future.

Another possibility to explore is to use the Council's reserve fund to finance the £126,000 annual shortfall.

I hope this proves that we are not just launching attacks against this grossly misguided proposal, we are also pushing for constructive ways in which we can rectify the problem.'

Lib Dem Parliamentary spokesperson Dale Mulgrew added, 'there is a concerning pattern emerging from the ruling Tory group which gives me great alarm, and that is they seem to be opting for the easy solutions that are not supporting the people of Rossendale. They won't back plans for tourism, they won't move on regeneration, and now we see their inability to support leisure - all massive sectors which, when linked together, have a huge bearing on the health and prosperity of citizen and business alike in the valley.'

'All the Tories seem to be good at is not being proactive - very soon the 'Do nothing' title that is often used for their counterparts in County Hall and Westminster, will reflect more on what they are doing locally!'