Funding Required Urgently for Bray Swimming Pool

The ending of public access to the swimming pool at Bray's Presentation College is simply unacceptable, according to Independent T.D. Mildred Fox. The large swimming pool is now off limits to the general public because of its general state of disrepair. "It's absolutely outrageous that a town of this size does not have a public swimming pool and that this private

No More Swimming for Bray

facility has been allowed to deteriorate to such an extent that it had to be closed because of fears for public safety".

Deputy Fox has brought the issue to the attention of the Minister for Tourism and Sport, Dr. Jim MacDaid, calling for the provision of government funding to remedy the situation. With the recent opening of the swimming pool in Wicklow town and the opening of Arklow's swimming pool last year, it is ironic that Bray now effectively has no pool of its own. With an estimated population of nearly 30, 000 inhabitants, there is good demand for a large swimming pool.

Deputy Fox also drew attention to the fact that swimming is now included on the curriculum of many of the local schools, but that they have been unable to provide lessons since the summer of this year. " I am very annoyed that this situation was allowed to arise". Apparently the fact that the pool was in such bad condition was brought to the attention of the department of Sport and Tourism earlier this year. These concerns seemly feel on deaf ears and the application for some lotto funding was not granted.

Recently in the Dail the point was made that sport should be funded from a grass roots level and in doing so encourage local communities to develop and encourage all athletic activities for all of those wishing to participate. In other words smaller projects for all of the community. This argument is opposed to the concept of building one enormous sports stadium as a national showpiece, only serving some of the population some of the time. "I think that there is a lot of merit in that point and would be keen to see many of the smaller projects throughout the county being funded for the benefit of local communities rather than channelling all resource into one big project" argued Deputy Fox.