GIVEN how good swimming is for you, it is alarming how regularly York manages to lose its public swimming pools. The Edmund Wilson and Barbican pools are both gone, as is the more commercial Waterworld.

True, the Edmund Wilson pool was replaced by the new Energise, while the public pool at York University makes up for the loss of the Barbican pool.

Even Waterworld may one day be replaced, if the Community Stadium ever gets built. But Yearsley Pool seems constantly under threat. And now another hugely-popular pool, at New Earswick, seems set to close.

The Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust (JRHT), which runs it, says it makes a loss of £132,000 a year, and needs repairs that would cost £1.3 million.

All of which has come as something of a surprise to the New Earswick Swimming Club, which uses the pool every day. The club recently celebrated its 50th birthday - and says there had never been any suggestion that the pool would have to be closed.

“They (the JRHT) could have consulted with us about increasing income for the building,” said Martin Edwards, the swimming club’s head coach.

That seems a not unreasonable expectation.

The abrupt way the JHRT announced this closure sits very poorly with the ideals of a Trust founded for philanthropic reasons by Joseph Rowntree.

The way the JRHT insists this isn’t a public pool also seems a little disingenuous. Strictly speaking, it may not be - the pool could be used only by groups such as the swimming club, which pre-booked. But it is used by more than 500 people a week, the club says.

We would like to see some attempt at least made to try to save it. At the very least, the JRHT should consult properly with user groups to see what the options are.