SIR — I read with great interest the funding bid of £500,000 planned for the Enterprising Minehead project (Free Press January 20).

Two years ago a senior Minehead town councillor said that the swimming pool project would be put on the council agenda for discussion and to be voted on, using a piece of land on the Irnham Road football ground.

This project would not cost the town council any money unless it wanted to subscribe to it.

Now, two years down the line, it hasn’t even been put on the agenda.

The council is talking about increasing tourism, which is good and about time, but can somebody explain to us general public why a swimming pool would not encourage tourism?

Surely this would be something that holidaymakers would love to see, particularly when the weather is poor. It would be somewhere for them to go and maybe keep them in Minehead a little longer - after all, they are not likely to walk along the Esplanade in the rain.

As well as being a family orientated attraction for both holidaymakers and the community, a swimming pool would create jobs for local people.

I have seen the proposed plans for the pool and besides the main pool there would be a smaller one for mums and toddlers, a café upstairs with a large window to watch the swimmers below with a lift for those people who find stairs a problem, and there will be tiered seating poolside for people to watch competitions and other events. There would also be rooms for meetings of many types.

Surely this project would help promote Minehead and the surrounding area in marketing and branding Minehead as a tourist attraction, and as Ms Mathews told the town council: “We want Minehead to be a gold star customer service.”

There are many thousands of signatures from the residents of Minehead and West Somerset for a community built and run swimming pool. Why can’t the powers that be let this project go forward?

Name and address supplied.