IN all the recent Press information about the plans for a new ‘Community Stadium’ at Monk’s Cross I have been most concerned about the suggestion that as a consequence of the replacement of Waterworld, Yearsley Pool might close.

I have a vested interest in this. My wife and I swim for at least two hours every week in Yearsley and have done so since I suffered a serious back complaint in 1991, when swimming was the only exercise that I could attempt. I swam myself back into fitness, and in that time the only time that we haven’t used Yearsley was when it was closed for re-roofing or Christmas maintenance. The alternatives were 25m pools, latterly Edward Wilson in Acomb and now the pool at the University complex.

Yearsley is 50 yards long, deep, with wide lanes. Overtaking is possible and safe and it never feels overcrowded, although at 7.30 in the morning it is always busy. The 25m pools in contrast have narrower lanes.

Yearsley is a superb facility and has a 25 year life ahead of it. It provides a great swimming environment and a training pool for York City Baths Club, which benefits enormously from the long distance swimming which is necessary for competition.

It caters for young and old. The new pool would prove inadequate for serious swimming; it is too small, too narrow, too unambitious.

Allan Harris, Moor Lane, Haxby.