I AM astounded by the views of the people of Grange who are supporting the reintroduction of a lido and by the results of your weekly poll, which indicated 81 per cent of those participating thought a lido would be a commercial success.

People obviously have short memories, insomuch that just a few years ago there was a multi-million pound, award-winning, purposely-designed swimming pool built at Berners Close funded by a mixture of public donations, Sport England and South Lakeland District Council. Where is it now?

The answer is it has been demolished after just five years of use simply because it was not commercially viable.

Now before readers assume that this was due to council inefficiency, the pool was operated by a trust formed by the people of Grange, because they thought they could run it much more effectively than SLDC.

In addition if people are convinced a lido would be a commercial success why are the private operators not showing a keen interest in operating the facility?

A restored lido operated by SLDC would simply be a huge drain on the council tax payers of South Lakeland and at a time when local authority budgets are stretched to the limit and beyond, there are far more important services which need financial protection.

Mike Jones

Lancaster