POOL POLL RESULTS ANNOUNCED

ARUNDEL residents have said yes to council funding for the town's swimming pool.

Nearly 90 per cent of those who voted in Thursday's parish poll said they wanted Arundel Town Council and Arun District Council to contribute to the ongoing operation of the pool as well as giving money already pledged to refurbish the pool tanks.

More than a third (34.2 per cent) of Arundel's 2,728 registered electors turned out to cast their votes at the poll, which was called for by a group of local electors and councillors who wanted reassurance that town council funding would have the backing of local people.

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"We are absolutely delighted to have had such a strong turnout at the polls.

"We look forward to working with both councils to take this project forward as soon as possible and we look to Arun District Council in particular to make the swimming pool part of their leisure strategy for the future," said Ruth Kerslake, chairman of the Arundel and Downland Community Leisure Trust (ACT), which now operates the pool site.

Residents were asked to answer five questions relating to the main funding issues of re-opening the pool. While the number of people voting yes or no varied from question to question, on average 822 votes in favour were cast with an average of 99 against.

The outcome of the poll will be discussed at a special meeting of the town council leisure committee on Wednesday.

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The ACT has called on local councillors to commit themselves to act quickly on the poll results.

Arun has pledged 142,000 and the town council 70,000 towards refurbishing the pools '” a total of 212,000.

Arun's contribution would come from reserves, in other words money it has saved from previous years, while the town council would borrow its contribution. Paying it back over 10 years would cost band D council tax payers around 5 a year extra.

The trust says that if the councils act now on the results, refurbishment work could begin in early autumn and the pools opened for summer, 2004.

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It is committed to raising an additional 1.75 million to completely refurbish the site. Its plans include replacing the ageing buildings with a community sports hall, a health and fitness suite and wet and dry changing area.

l The parish poll was restricted to Arundel electors, which the trust said excluded a large community of people from the downland villages and other Sussex communities who have previously made regular use of the pool and have supported the trust.

However, schoolchildren from surrounding areas were given the chance to have their say on Thursday at special mock polls held at Arundel CE, Westergate Community and Amberley CE schools.

While results at Westergate and Amberley could not be counted before they broke up for the Easter holidays, Arundel CE School counted 132 pupils in favour and just four against having a swimming pool in the town.