CAMPAIGNERS’ hopes of saving a York swimming pool are growing after a ‘positive’ meeting with its owner, the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust.

Andrew Calverley, joint chairman of Friends Of New Earswick Swimming Pool (FoNESP), said a lot of progress was made at the meeting yesterday with senior trust officials including chief executive Campbell Robb.

Now he was increasingly hopeful an agreement could be reached for the community interest company to be given the lease for the building and take over the running of the pool.

The progress comes five months after the trust announced the pool was to close from this March as it was running at a loss of £132,000 a year and would cost £1.3 million to renovate.

The decision sparked a campaign to save the pool, and FoNESP was founded as a charitable limited company.

Mr Calverley said after yesterday’s meeting: “It was a very positive meeting and I’m increasingly hopeful an agreement can be reached to secure the pool’s future.

“They seem genuinely to want to work as a partnership and seemed to be impressed with our business plan, which we submitted a few weeks ago.

“They seemed to appreciate that we have some professional expertise we can call upon.”

He said there was a crucial meeting of the trust board on Thursday next week, at which he hoped board members would agree in principle to the lease being given to the Friends.

Swim England, the national governing body for swimming in England, have already offered their support to the community group, and councillors and the MP for York Outer Julian Sturdy have publicly supported the campaign.

A trust spokesman said senior staff met with representatives from FoNESP to discuss the ‘community asset transfer bid’ for the New Earswick Swimming Pool.

“The meeting was positive and gave everyone the opportunity to discuss the FoNESP’s business case, which they submitted to us at the end of January,” he said.

“JRHT will now report back to its board, which meets on Thursday March 1, and we will be able to give more details about next steps after that meeting.”