Do not close paddling pool (From Southend Standard)

Do not close paddling pool

9:43am Monday 8th February 2010

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ONE thousand residents have now signed a petition to save a much-loved seaside paddling pool.

Campaigners also vowed to hold a string of public protests against Castle Point Council’s plans to fill in the tidal pool on Canvey seafront because of health and safety worries.

They were deeply disappointed after Tory councillors on the overview and scrutiny committee voted to push ahead with the closure.

At the end of the meeting at the council offices, in Kiln Road, Thundersley, Dot Palmer, 62, shouted at council leaders from the public gallery “I hope your grandchildren don’t drown in the water”.

Afterwards, the pensioner, from Linden Way, Canvey, said: “It won’t be safer, it will be far more dangerous for children if they get rid of the pool.

“Children can paddle about safely in there. It’s sheltered from the sea and the tide and it’s only shallow. If they have to go in the sea and walk on the mudflats, it’s going to be very dangerous.

“One of my grandchildren got stuck in the mud up to his neck once. He was lucky not to drown.”

Steve Bullock, 54, of Wood- field Road, Canvey, added: “That pool is safe, it has been there for 80 years and no-one has ever been injured.”

Lea Swann, 55, who owns the Concord Cafe, off Eastern Esplanade, Canvey, said: “We will not give up the fight to save the pool.

“They say children will still be able to use the paddling pool next door, but it won’t be big enough for all the families.

“It took me less than a week to collect all those signatures for this petition, because people feel so passionately. We’re going to organise public protests and force the council to listen.”

She urged everyone who loves the paddling pool to join a public protest on Canvey seafront from 11am on Sunday.

Council leaders claim it would be too expensive to renovate the pool up to health and safety standards and employ a lifeguard.

Council leader Pam Challis said: “This decision was made reluctantly, as I have always been a firm supporter of Canvey seafront. However, we have to think of potential liability to the council and corporate manslaughter charges if a child was to die in there.”

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