Pool campaigners in protest call
Campaigners fighting to save condemned Coseley Baths are being urged to "bombard" Dudley Council with protest letters and demonstrate outside all of the authority's meetings.
Campaigners fighting to save condemned Coseley Baths are being urged to "bombard" Dudley Council with protest letters and demonstrate outside all of the authority's meetings.
Dozens packed into the doomed building last night for the latest action committee meeting.
The baths in Peartree Lane are due to close in August after a council survey found £2 million of repairs are needed.
Action committee member Brian Guest, aged 65, of Elmwood Rise, Sedgley, urged everyone to write to Dudley Council chiefs calling on them to make a U-turn.
He said: "I am urging people to bombard the council with letters and emails and we should be protesting outside every council meeting."
Mr Guest said people should demand to know why residents should pay their council tax when the authority was not supporting the town. He added: "Why should we pay? They will sit up and listen if we threaten to withold our council tax."
Coseley councillor Susan Ridney called for further talks to be set up with new cabinet member for leisure and culture, councillor David Stanley, who has replaced decision maker councillor Karen Shakespeare.
Wolverhampton South East MP Pat McFadden, whose constituency will cover the pool at the next election, also addressed supporters again. He pledged his backing to the campaign and demanded to know why government money had not been spent in Coseley after receiving a response from culture minister Andy Burnham, who said the final decision rested with the council.
But he urged protesters to stay on the right side of the law and use people power to put councillors under pressure.
Resident and retired welder Clement Baugh, 66, of Dimmocks Avenue, said members needed to organise a mass demonstration. He said: "It needs a commitment. We should be putting pressure on the council. We need to demonstrate outside every council meeting and every area committee meeting."
The action committee has now commissioned an independent structural survey of the baths. Council bosses say their hands are tied by their own structural report.
