Campaigners given lido deadline

The outdoor pool at Hendy is one of two in Carmarthenshire

Campaigners fighting to re-open an 70-year-old outdoor swimming pool in Carmarthenshire have until Friday to demonstrate support for their cause.

Villagers in Hendy want the lido brought back into use after it closed due to structural damage in 2002.

They held a meeting on Tuesday evening to drum up support for the project, which could cost £100,000.

The county council said it will prepare a report on the matter and needs people's views by the weekend.

This is only one of two outdoor pools in the county and we've got to keep it so something has got to be done to make it safe Campaigner Derek Lyon

Hendy Lido is just one of a handful of outdoor pools left in Wales.

Built in the early 1930s by unemployed tinplate workers, management of the pool was handed over to the community by the county council four years ago.

But after two successful summers one of the pool walls was found to be unsafe and it has remained closed ever since.

A campaign has been launched to try to persuade Carmarthenshire Council, which owns the site, to repair and run it.

Organiser Derek Lyon said: "It's not only a Hendy facility, it's a Hendy, Llangennech and Bont (Pontarddulais) facility.

"This is only one of two outdoor pools in the county and we've got to keep it so something has got to be done to make it safe."

'Pick and shovel'

Mr Lyon said there were few facilities for youngsters in the village and said the pool was part of local heritage.

"It was opened I think in 1933. It was built by the people of Hendy.

"As you can imagine building the pool with just a wheelbarrow and a pick and shovel was quite an incredible thing."

Council officers have met with campaigners to discuss the pool although did not attend Tuesday's meeting, at the Urdd Hall, Hendy.

Executive board member for leisure Clive Scourfield said officers had been asked to prepare a report for councillors, with a deadline of Friday for views from local people.

The cost of repairing the pool is estimated at £100,000 but this does not guarantee further work will not be needed in future.

"We had a meeting with the people of the community before Christmas and the overwhelming feeling was that they wanted the pool to be re-opened," he said.