People's Millions - Shaftesbury Swimming Pool

Shaftesbury Swimming Pool has made a successful bid for £50,000 of Big Lottery money in the ITV West Region.

The money is part of a National Lottery Fund called “The Peoples Millions” which is being run by ITV as part of their 50^th Year celebrations.

The pool was chosen from two proposed projects in the region following voting by Meridian viewers. The programme, shown on Wednesday 2^nd November at 6pm, invited viewers to decide between Shaftesbury Pool and a project in Midsomer Norton near Bath. The two projects were selected from approximately 30,000 hopefuls across the country.

The scheme; led for the last two years by Councillor Pam Reynolds with support from Mrs.Win Harvey, Jon Brooks and others; and with a large Community following made the bid to raise sufficient money to roof the pool and make other improvements. The aim is to make the facility useable from May to September by people of all ages. Local schools and clubs have all expressed an interest in using the pool.

Fund-raising efforts for the work so far have netted approximately £90,000 from various sources but the work required has been costed at about £140,000.

Pam Reynolds said: “This is great step towards getting the pool fit for Shaftesbury people and those others from far."

For full details of Big Lottery Fund programmes and grant awards are available at: www.biglotteryfund.co.uk