Tragedy pool gets £13k in revamp plan
Campaigners fighting for a renaissance of the Black Country pool where teenager Shane Owoo was tortured and killed have been given a £13,000 boost to make their plans a reality.
Residents left shocked after the tragic death of the 16-year-old have spent months in talks about plans to transform the rundown Baileys Pool in Bilston into a haven for anglers. They have already had a grid fitted to the drainage system at the site which has lowered the water level.
This will make it safer for people to walk around its perimeter.
And today they announced their transformation plans at the site, which will include installing fishing platforms as well as creating a car park for visitors and a picnic area, had been given a boost after accepting a £13,000 grant from the Environment Agency.
Ann Nightingale, chairwoman of Lunt tenants' and residents' association, who is spearheading the campaign for the pool's transformation, said today: "This pool has been neglected for such a long time.
"Even before the tragedy it had been left to fall into a terrible state.
"We wanted to do something to bring the pool back to the way it was. The water level has been lowered so people can walk around the outside and now we have been given a £13,000 grant from the Environment Agency.
"We are all so pleased with the agency's response to what we are planning to do.
"The money is being saved so we can find out exactly what the residents want to do. We are also hoping to get some lottery money for the project."
The cash grant has been announced after it emerged Parkhill Estates, which owns the site, were also hoping to create 50 new homes there.
Weak swimmer Shane was marched into the pool – known as Lunt Pool – in September 2007 after being pelted with stones and thrown into nettles over a row about a mountain bike. Christopher Lewis and Marvin Walker, who punched the youngster and laughed as he floundered in the water, were initially sentenced to five-and-a-half years after admitting manslaughter.
But both Lewis, aged 23, of Russell Road, St Chad's estate, and Walker, 21, of no fixed abode, later had their sentences increased to seven-and-a-half years at the Court of Appeal.
