Olympic-size pool yes - but keep local pools like Jubilee in Knowle too

Copy of my letter, published in the Bristol Evening Post on Friday 8 Aug:

A new olympic-sized pool at Hengrove Park, would be great, but we should also be retaining local facilities such as Jubilee Pool in Knowle and others. Whilst campaigning as the Green candidate for Knowle in the last local elections I received a letter from local Labour campaigners stating that Jubilee Pool should stay open but now the Labour Cabinet running Bristol are set to close it once Hengrove Park is developed ('Bristol swimming pools axed for new leisure centre', Post, 5 Aug)!!

We need more sources of healthy exercise not less. Local facilities are an important community feature, especially for those who find it most difficult to travel, such as the elderly and families with young children. Its also more polluting if people have to travel further to a more remote pool as its beyond walking distance for many and they will tend to go by car.

I'd also like to see renewable energy systems used in the new leisure centre, especially to heat the water in the new pool (which would otherwise consume a massive amount of polluting and non-renewable fuel). I've written to the council making enquiries about this twice but have not even received an acknowledgement from them.