“"There are none so blind as those who will not see."”

“Thank you Roger for putting the facts forward regarding our local qualified gardener, civil engineer, social worker , residential worker, train engineer, accountant, water engineer, nurse, doctor hygienist, ward manager, policy former and all round expert...... oh by the way how much does it cost for an adult to swim in the open air pool.......only went down twice this season?!

There appears to be many questions unanswered regarding the open air pool on these pages, can I suggest that as me you walk down the High Street into your local shop and speak directly to whom you have so many concerns for. Or contact the many Trust ran pools that have all been saved by local communities and all ran well from Burnham to London to Manchester.

I my self as many fellow swimmers and looking forward to contributing to this great community response and the first swim of the season.”

“So the facts basically are that as a previously unsuccessful local politician, Mr Whitfield used the Open Air pool Trust as a means of ensuring publicity for his political resurgence as no doubt will other ex Labour unsuccessful politicians who were also involved in the pool campaign.

At the last election another councillor changed her political allegiance to ensure winning a seat, it seems to be quite a habit.

These fickle and intrustworthy acts do not go unnoticed by the voting public which is probably why the turnout on election day is always so low.

Having listened to all sides of the argument, would I choose to believe a self interested politician with no loyalties or a local lady who has chosen to follow through her words and opinions on many occasions with no financial goal in sight and no ulterior motives? I think that question might just answer itself.

And where on earth has Mr Whitfield got the idea the pool is safe for the next 99 years. It seems the political spin that ensures all statements are economical with the truth has already become part of Mr Whitfields electioneering policy.”

“Yet again Annette Hennessy gets it wrong, please check your facts.

Trustees are required to stand down on a regular basis and have maximum term restrictions, this is good practice for a trust.

The council closed the pool because it was too expensive to run, their figures may have been flawed and their conculsions weighted but their case does stack up enough to prove the point. Only with real investment will the pool become viable, and the council won't invest.

We have already negotiated the formal agreement for this year and the following 99, everything will be in place by the 23rd May 2009.

On the subject of my political colours, all I can say is that I am making a stand against the party political system that forces certain viewpoints onto its members, I believe that politicians should be free to represent their constituents.

I have not left the Labour party to join the Conservatives, or even the Lib Dems, I have left to enable me to do what is best for the people, not what is best for a political party.

You don't have to vote for me, that's your choice, but before voting you should look at the existing party political system and ask yourself, if it is giving you want you want.

There will be plenty of Independent candidates available at the next election, consider voting Independent before handing your vote to the same old party.”

“I have sent personal correspondence to Roger Whitfield to correct him on his comment that the Friends "lost" and remind him of some of the issues. I also feel he should be open about his plans not to remain as a Trustee after the initial stages. The matter was far from over and whilst the Ombudsman cannot force any council to implement recommendations, North Somerset Council would have been unlikely to ignore matters.

Finally and I mean finally because I rarely post more than one comment on a subject, the open air pool is not safe. It has been secured for one season only after which time, a formal agreement will be negotiated. It is this negotiation that concerns me because of Trust instability and possible inflexible conditions imposed by the council.”

“I'm a little confused Jayne. You run down Liam Fox and The Conservatives and yet you are prepared to back Roger Whitfield who is attempting to stand for a political movement inspired and organised by a well known Conservative figure who still has many fingers in many Conservative activities, has donated a lot of money to the Conservative party and was even Chairman of the Conservative Association.
Who's playing politics here then? Roger Whitfield Labour turned Conservative turned who knows what next?
Fortunately there is now way this new party will make an impact nor Mr Whitfield secure many votes and then Sir Paul Judge will think of other ways to spend his time shuffling with politics so that his friends in Whitehall can carry on with their corrupt lifestyles.”

“Yes Mr Whitfield..

'I am standing in an attempt to put an end to gravy train politics'

... so rather than stand locally, you decide to attempt to jump on board the largest, most corrupt gravy train in Politics, the European Parliament? And should you make such a step how much do you think you will personally pocket and stash into a huge pension fund before you realise that the corruption runs so deep there is nothing you can do about it and then fade into the corridors of the European power house as one of the corrupt? Every politician who has promised such actions in the past has done exactly that.

Sorry but I can think of nobody who you can stand up for and honestly say you represent when previously you were a staunch labour supporter, you now claim to support both conservative and labour policies and want to stand for a party that was itself started by a millionaire former conservative supporting donor who himself now appears to be ditching his own political beliefs to try to get onto the Euro gravy train and add a bit of power to his increasing fortune.

The only point that I would agree with Mr Whitfield on is the fact that politics is now corrupt and full of corrupt people but having watched the way he has hijacked someone else's unpoilitically motivated campaign to further his own agenda does not inspire the kind of trust he hopes to instil in people.

This is all about money, nothing more nothing less and it always was.”

“I started a campaign to save the pool because I want my children to be able to use the pool as I did when I was growing up in Portishead.

The reason I didn't start the campaign earlier was because I thought the existing campaign was working, and I didn't want to bring politics into the pool. However it because obvious that the Friends had lost, that is the point at which I stepped in, not to further my political aims, but to ensure the pool was safe, this has been done now with the council putting in place a structure to keep the pool open for the next 100 years.

Myself and other members of the trust were at the pool last night until 10pm getting things ready, there is alot to do, and it cannot all be done with a token effort on a sunny sunday, instead it has to be planned and managed.

I am standing in an attempt to put an end to gravy train politics, I am disgusted by our politicians, local, national and international, the only way to deal with a corrupt system is to cut out the corrupt people and replace them with people who believe in fairness and transparancy.”

“Now I really am confused. Not sure why I would even want to listen to what Liam Fox has to say when it is his party that began the systematic dismantling of all our services by conning the British public into believing that the welfare state is a bad thing and needs modernizing by introducing competition and market forces, the result just a few for example the relaxing of school meal health guidelines, the reduction of public transport availability growth in poor hygiene in hospitals, and the belief that profit should be before people; to name just a few. So no thanks I do not really hold with much regard Mr. Fox¿s beliefs or point of views.


I am equally confused as to why there is the belief that the ombudsman could have re opened the pool. The Council despite knowing the failings of all the reports still chose to close the pool. The ombudsman simply when they find that a council has done something wrong will recommend how it should put it right. They cannot make councils do what they recommend. If certain members of North Somerset committee ignored facts and still do why would their reaction to the ombudsman be any different?


It is about time we have an alternative way of thinking in this town of ours, as you will know swimmer and James. The overwhelming majority of people who voted in this Town voted for the people who made the decision to close down the pool, the intentions of the council were made public many years ago by a local councilor, still the votes were made. I struggle to see what real difference would have been made without an alternative plan apart from a closed swimming pool. If the ombudsman report demonstrates that the council has done something wrong this should not have anything to do with the Trust and its setting up. I can not see this present council going complete full circle and running this pool when they have tried numerous times to close it before believe private tender is best and that DC Leisure do such a ¿good job¿ at running all their other leisure centers.


George I totally agree with you this is politics in its pure form its time for action and solution focus not just a simple walk by.”

“I'm confused. Mr Whitfield jumps on board a campaign that was already starting to make progress to keep the Pool open, takes credit for other peoples ongoing efforts and now he intends to spend his time campaigning to jump on board the gravy train that politics now is?

I get the strange feeling a lot of people are going to feel very ripped off next year when the council then goes ahead and closes our pool because we were all stupid enough to fall for the 'trust' idea that appears to have been no more than a side show for a few local politicians needing publicity wheras council control again should have been the priority.

Nice one Mr Whitfield, who else will now show their true intentions and ask for our votes?”