IT’S very disappointing that the town meeting to discuss the future of Ledbury Swimming Pool has been cancelled, especially as it has been in the diary for weeks.

With or without senior officials from Herefordshire and Halo, the meeting should have gone ahead in order to have given Ledbury people the opportunity to express their views on the future of this vital amenity.

Councillor Peter Watts may have his reasons for cancelling the meeting, but I think we are all owed a proper explanation.

It’s simply not good enough to be told it’s top of my priority list but I can’t comment further.

With respect, Coun Watts, the pool belongs to us – the Ledbury community – and we deserve the opportunity to have our say now – unpalatable though that might be to some local politicians in this county who seem to prefer behind the scenes discussions rather than open democratic debate.

In passing I also want to suggest that right now the main priority for the pool is to get the ventilation system working so that the roof timbers don’t continue to rot.

It would be nice to have a complete refit of the changing rooms, but this is far from essential.

As a very frequent user of the pool, I can say that the changing rooms and showers are perfectly serviceable.

Taking the changing room refit out of the equation, keeping Ledbury pool open is not going to be prohibitively expensive.

Bearing in mind that very little money has been invested in maintaining the fabric of Ledbury pool for many years, the £100,000 or so to replace the clapped out condensation extractors should be made forthwith.

RICHARD HADLEY

Ledbury