Sign our petition calling for consultation on the future of the Arthur Hill site
Questions from the Arthur Hill Campaign have revealed that Reading Borough Council’s plans to sell Arthur Hill swimming pool for housing development have collapsed after the Council decided to halt negotiations with the prospective purchaser of the site.
The Council had hoped to sell the pool to OOAK Developments, which it acknowledged as being ‘a young company of limited experience’, and had expected to have concluded a £1.15 million deal for the sale by the end of 2018. However, discussions with the developer have taken far longer than expected and at Monday evening’s Policy Committee meeting Council Leader Jason Brock finally admitted that “dialogue with the preferred purchaser has been discontinued”, and that options for the site are now being reviewed. (A copy of Councillor Brock’s statement is available to download at the bottom of this article).
This is great news, as it potentially gives the Council the opportunity to press the reset button on its plans for Arthur Hill. However, the council has stated that it will consider the re-use of the site for housing, rather than a broader range of options that would include it being returned to use as a swimming pool, so we now need to persuade them that the pool should continue to be used for leisure use – and we need your support to do this!
The Arthur Hill Campaign is insisting that members of the public are consulted over the future of the Arthur Hill site, and that the Council follows the will of the local community in East Reading over the future of the site. We have set up an online petition calling for the Council to consult over the future of the site on the Change.org website here.
We are aiming to get over 2500 signatures on the petition to force the Council to discuss the matter at a future meeting. This will be a tough target, so we really need your support. Please sign the petition now, and ask all your friends and family members who may be interested to do likewise.
The news that the Arthur Hill sale has fallen through would not have been released by Reading Borough Council were it not for persistent questioning by the Arthur Hill Campaign at Council meetings over the past 12 months.
The Arthur Hill site was placed on the open market by Reading Borough Council last year and nine bids were received from potential buyers – none of whom were to the Council’s liking. Whatever the Council may say, the prospects of selling it for housing development look slim.
The first thing the Council must do now is consult with local people over the future of the Arthur Hill site, rather than push ahead with unworkable plans to sell the site for development. We are confident that consultation would show that an overwhelming majority of local people would prefer to see the site retained for leisure and community use rather than be sold off.
All the evidence suggests that local people would be willing to back a scheme to refurbish and reopen Arthur Hill Pool and bring swimming back to East Reading – a scheme which would be much cheaper and quicker to deliver than the Council’s pie-in-the sky plans to build a new pool on public open space in Palmer Park.
If the Council is willing to show its support, we now have a fantastic prospect for uniting and galvanising the local community into action on a project which could become the pride of the town.
Don’t forget – please sign and share the petition now!
Download the Council statement in full here:
Arthur Hill SOS News 