Holywell Mead Pool

Wycombe residents (and the surrounding areas) have come over the years to rely on Holywell Mead Pool being available. It has provided many 1000’s of people pleasure each year. Given its location (a beautiful open space in the centre of High Wycombe) it provides the basis for an enjoyable day out or an hour’s break from the normal pace of life. Many of the area’s residents believe this facility should be saved for future community use.

The High Wycombe area has a diversity of cultures and ethnic origins – many of these groups need affordable leisure and sport facilities that they can reach. Many of these people have no transport and come from low income groups – paying for transport as well as the entrance fee for facilities deters them from using them – we believe a healthy walk across a green space is ideal for them and their children. We wish to encourage this environmentally friendly approach to accessing swimming.

The pool is blessed with a range of environmental benefits – open site – plenty of sunshine – close to water – green space – we believe we can harness these natural resources better. Use them within the pool better and provide the local and wider community with best practice examples of energy and carbon efficiency for further application.

Looking closely at the utilisation of the pool(s) both the main pool and an upgraded paddling pool should be and could be much more widely used. We have looked at other like pools and a three/four fold increase in utilisation should be possible if properly marketed and sustainable pricing adopted.

There is an acute local and national shortage of swimming and aquatic skills teachers. We believe the location and size of the pool is ideal for teaching teachers to teach. We hope to establish a significant and sustainable teacher training capability. This will be encouraged to reach out to community minorities and encourage them to skill up to meet a larger and more diverse marketplace.

During the steering group’s due diligence it has become obvious that there are a variety of other stakeholders who could and should be encouraged to use the pool – these are so far – triathlon – swimming clubs – swimming lessons – canoeists – open water swimmers – local sports clubs – we believe each of these and particularly collectively represent thousands of new and current potential users – engaging with them in a constructive way will help secure the pool and increase it’s utilisation.

The closure of a pool just three years before the 2012 London Olympics generates a negative message to young people about the perception of the importance of sport to the district.

Swimming facilities should not be closed at a time when obesity among young people in the UK is rising rapidly – figures in 2004 showed that 14 per cent of boys and 17 per cent of girls aged 2-15 were obese in the UK. Those figures are increasing as are the health problems, including diabetes and heart disease, associated with obesity.

In summary we believe the pool is sustainable – meet a much wider community use – allow different sports clubs to use and provide our community groups with better access to better health and welfare choices – act as a channel for different community groups to create wealth and provide employment options.