BRINE bath campaigners say attracting a private investor could be the key to resurrecting a spa town’s heritage.

The Save Our Brine Baths (SOBBS) residents’ action group organised a round table meeting with MP Peter Luff to discuss how to reopen Droitwich’s defunct brine bath facility.

William Moy, the group’s chairman, said: “It’s got to be private enterprise.”

Mr Luff, Conservative MP for Mid Worcestershire agreed, saying the role of Droitwich as a spa tourist town had to be raised at a national level.

He has agreed to write to several groups and individuals including Lord Sebastian Coe, who leads on the London 2012 Olympics, Worcester Warriors and Worcestershire County Cricket Club for evidence to support the potential rehabilitation benefits to sportsmen and women of brine baths. Mr Luff said he would also try to get an adjournment debate raised in the House of Commons.

“There might be an opportunity for a new owner to come in and say ‘could we have the brine baths?’ – say a link with a hotel,” said Mr Moy. “The Chateau Impney could have it. There might be a chance there for a new owner, now the hotel is on the market.” He said one option could be to pump the brine water to the Droitwich Spa Lido, saying that the group had sat down and held encouraging talks with the director of Wychavon Leisure.

We previously reported in your Worcester News how there was a public outcry after leaseholder BMI Healthcare – which also runs Droitwich Spa Hospital – pulled out of running the baths in St Andrew’s Street even though it had two years left to run on its lease. Wychavon District Council, from which BMI had leased the land, negotiated a £200,000 penalty fee and set up a task force to look at how best the money should be spent.

Mr Moy said SOBBS was still unhappy none of its members had been allowed to sit on the task force claiming communication has been all one way.

But Mr Luff told about a dozen members of SOBBS he felt the task force, Droitwich Town Council and SOBBS were all working for the same goal. Mr Luff said: “The important thing is we know what we want and how we want to get there.”