West Wicklow Pool Campaigners Highlight Success Of Pop Up Pool

The Community Pool for West Wicklow campaign committee meet with Wicklow County Council.

The Community Pool for West Wicklow campaign committee were delighted to meet with Wicklow County Council Chief Executive Emer O’Gorman and CCSD Director of Services Michael Nicholson at Council Buildings on Monday June 26th. The committee were also joined by Swim Ireland Operations Director Mary McMorrow and Head of Participation Ashley Hunter.

The meeting was a chance for the West Wicklow pool campaigners to update the new Wicklow Chief Executive on their campaign for the development of a permanent swimming pool in the Baltinglass Municipal District. The campaign, now in its fifth year, has gone from strength to strength with one of the major milestones being the locating of a Pop-Up Pool in Blessington for a 16-week period from September to December 2022 with the support of Swim Ireland.

During the meeting on Monday, Community Pool for West Wicklow Chairperson, Deirdre McCormack, highlighted the success of the Pop-Up Pool in West Wicklow and the far-reaching impact that it had on the community, including providing the opportunity for 600 children a week to attend swimming lessons. Swim Ireland representative Ashley Hunter also spoke about the success of the Pop-Up Pool from a swimming participation point of view and how it ties in with the National Sports Policy and National Swimming Strategy.Monday’s meeting also follows the welcome announcement from Wicklow County Council at their April meeting that they have included an allocation of €500k in their Proposed Capital Investment Plan 2023-2025 for a pool for West Wicklow.