THE soon-to-be-head of Oaklands School is obviously going to support the building of a new pool at Oaklands. It will become part of his school domain. Assurance must be given that this pool will be available to the general public from 7am to 10pm, as the present Edmund Wilson Swimming Pool (EWSP) is now. If not, it will be a continuing reduction of leisure services for the area.

Oaklands has just opened a new up-to-date gym, described as "super" at the opening. The EWSP has a new stand-alone gym with full disability access. Do the proposed plans for EWSP need to include a lift to the first floor for another gym?

Plans for the new pool at Oaklands require the recently rebuilt, modernised Priory Medical Centre to be moved to near the site of the present EWSP. This will need lengthy complicated and expensive planning. Why not build the new pool nearby the present EWSP, instead of moving the medical centre?

This could allow the present pool to remain open, and provide an uninterrupted leisure facility for the council's customers. The revenue would also continue to flow. The experience of the Barbican "exercise" shows that the less complicated the planning for these schemes, the less likelihood there is of the present £4 million dwindling to much less.

J Beisly, Osprey Close, York.