RESIDENTS have been left disappointed at news their village school plans to close its historic swimming pool.

Anthony Bond

RESIDENTS have been left disappointed at news their village school plans to close its historic swimming pool.

East Bergholt High School has announced plans to replace the swimming pool with a playground area. The school says it has exhausted every option for keeping the pool open. But the decision has angered some residents.

Janet Watts, 72, said she was “disgusted” by the decision to close the pool which she says was well-used and popular for many years.

“I just think that it is a tremendous loss of an amenity,” she said. “The pool was built by the village with the parish council's help.

“The school was attached to the village then but now it is just a school. It is not part of the community at all I feel and the doing away with a perfectly adequate pool is just mind boggling.

“It is just a shame that such a facility should rot away. There are lots of people that feel the same way in the village.”

The headteacher at the school, Moira Humphreys, said: “It is with great regret that we have had to finally close the swimming pool at East Bergholt High School.

“We have exhausted every viable avenue for keeping the pool open. The school is not funded to maintain the (uncovered) swimming pool which has been in need of major refurbishment for many years now. We have worked closely with the local community to try and find a pragmatic solution to avoid closure.”

Mrs Humphreys added: “The pool has not been used for four years now and it is in a state of significant decay, thus posing a considerable health and safety risk to both our students and any visitors to the site. It would cost a considerable amount of capital to make the pool usable again and, unfortunately, we know that the revenue costs would far outweigh any potential income from the pool.”