Why, why, why?

Like many other residents to whom I have spoken, I am extremely unhappy with the new pool. Concerns raised in discussion have been many and varied but here are the key points:

1) Why are we building a new smaller pool 40 years after the last one, when the town is almost twice the size?

2) Why are they building a pool with no provision for car parking?

3) Why are we spending so much of council taxpayers’ money on the building and so relatively little on the facility itself?

4) Why is the council selling so many assets in the town in order to pay for it, when there have been other plans in the past that would not have cost the taxpayers anything in capital expenditure?

5) If the council needs to sell assets in order to pay for the new pool, why don’t they sell some of the purported exhibits from the museum, which the public never sees because the cost of insuring these items for public display is too high?

6) Why is the council website so difficult to navigate in order for the public to see that ALL the prerequisites to building have been done and rules complied with?

7) Where is the “transparency” in all this so that we can see where our tax is going?

8) Why, when questions are asked of the council, can they not answer them adequately?

9) Why, if this new pool is to be such an asset to the town, is there the possibility of an award for the design of the building rather than an award for the facility it will house?

10) Why are we paying upwards of £20 million for something of less quality than the wonderful new complex at Horley (opened in January 2012, which cost £9million)?

11) Why have they not taken steps to replace the play facilities that have been lost to the less affluent side of Worthing before destroying the existing ones, i.e., a beach playground similar to West Worthing’s?

12) Why have they kept the copper roof at the expense of facilities for disabled people?

If any councillor in power when this was passed can answer all of these questions to my satisfaction, I (and many others) will vote for them in the coming elections. But, if they can’t, do they deserve to be elected?

Trudi Starling

Organiser

Mayor’s Charity Swim

Alexandra Court

Goring