To follow on from last month's article about the Spennymoor kids' demo., there was a public meeting in the Town Hall, on Monday, September 3rd. The meeting was called so that the council could explain their ideas about a sports and social centre and for the people who preferred a swimming bath to put forward their reasons. The Meeting was packed. It was incedible that a public issue had raised so much interest in normally complacent Spennymoor, and the support for the baths was very strong and very noisy.

The council issued very useful little pamphlets explaining the layout and possible uses of the centr and put forward a number of good reasons why this was preferable, but they couldn't escape the fact that if the people wanted a swimming bath then they should have one. However, the way that the council put their case was a bit disconcerting, there were a lot of half-truths put forward which were only revealed by shrewd and persistent questioning by people who knew what they were talking about, and once or twice it looked as though the meeting had been called to pull the wool over peoples' eyes. The Chairman kept stressing that if they deviated from the original project they would lose a grant from the Sports Council. It later turned out that this grant wouldn't be lost and anyway the grant was only going to amount to about one fifteenth of the cost.

As things turned out, the council decided the next day to build the sports centre............plus a swimming bath (although its just a small one). Just goes to show doesn't it, that if you want anything you have to fight tooth and nail, and even then they give you short measure; however, its better than sitting and hoping it'll drop on your plate.