A RESIDENTS group in the Arboretum area of Worcester has claimed the site of the city’s swimming pool could be used for car parking rather than housing.

Last month your Worcester News reported members of the Arboretum Residents Association were concerned they were being kept out of discussions on the future of the current site of Worcester Pool and Fitness Centre in Sansome Walk.

The pool is due to be shut down and demolished once the city’s new pool in Perdiswell is complete – expected to be next year – and the site is allocated for housing in the in-development South Worcestershire Development Plan (SWDP).

But at a meeting of the association on Tuesday, February 24 chairman Ivan Smith said he had received information that Worcester City Council was now looking into the possibility of using the site as a pay and display car park.

“It seems we were quite right with our concerns,” he said. “There’s no engagement and there’s no transparency.

“It’s almost Machiavellian.”

He added the council had carried out a public engagement into the plans for the site was held in March last year, the association has since received no information or feedback.

“From the point of view of rate payers the more efficient the council is in terms of revenue the better for everyone,” he said.

“But they’ve got to think about the community.

“We have enough problems with traffic.”

Speaking at Tuesday’s meeting, the city council’s only Green Party member Cllr Matthew Jenkins,

“If they can’t find a parking space they might have a look around some of the residential streets nearby,” he said.

“People want parking for their own cars, but not pay and display.”

Saying he felt the association, which now boasts more than 100 members, had been “fobbed off” by the council, Mr Smith said it had long been felt the site would be an ideal place for retirement housing.

“We have quite an ageing population in the Arboretum and this would allow them to stay in the area they know,” he said.

“Let’s give the city council one last chance to come back to us and if that doesn’t happen let’s take action.”

A Worcester City Council spokesman said the selling of the site had been agreed as part of the funding for the new pool in Perdiswell but refused to confirm whether or not instead using it for a car park was under consideration.

“As a council we have a duty to consider best value for the tax payer so we will keep all options open until we are ready to sell it,” he said.

The current draft of the SWDP – which sets out plans for where new housing can be built up until 2030 – includes an allocation for 33 new homes on the site.

The council has previously committed to keep to pool open until the new site in Perdiswell is complete.