Certainly the Lido as it was is an old building, as one who took part in a sponsored swim back in the late sixties whilst a pupil at Ernest Bailey School in Matlock as part of the 'Raise The Roof' campaign which was to provide a sliding roof over the existing pool I know that.

It also set the mark for what has become the usual substandard end of project results the town seems to always have to accept, as far from having a sliding roof the pool size was reduced, depth halved and all the diving boards removed.

This building is actually newer than the Queen's Park Centre at Chesterfield and the facilities on offer there are far superior than what we have to endure, also that centre seems to run without continual shutdowns.

Maybe had a schedule of preventative maintenance been regularly carried out the fact the wooden battens were rotting would have been picked up, as anyone knows wood and moisture aren't the best of friends and given all the winter shutdowns the pool has endured this could easily have been done and the present situation would never have occurred.

Derbyshire Dales District Council may have a good record of providing centres elsewhere but as usual Matlock gets the dirty end of the stick.

In the next financial year accompanying the usual hike in Council Tax we will again receive a nice glossy brochure justifying the rise and telling us how wonderful the services provided by our mismanagers are and that we have one of the top ten councils in England.

To see how to run a town properly and provide services maybe the powers that be should trot over to Chesterfield as there seems to be no end to the improvements made to that town in recent years.

The knowledge gained on how to do things could definitely be put to good use to pull this town out of the downward spiral it seems to be stuck in.

Still, once the pool goes, shortly followed by the adjoining gym no doubt we will have a few more sandwich shops or coffee bars to utilise our leisure time in.

So if the chair of the MARS committee would come back to the real world and sort the whole mess out I may be able to go swimming again before I draw my pension... (11 years and not holding my breath..!).

Meanwhile I'll do my bit for the planet and get the car out and drive to Chesterfield to swim and play squash – that doesn't really fit with the district council's Green Policy but needs must...

Kevin Hodkin
Matlock.