Pool For West Wicklow Campaign Miss Out On Government Funding

Wicklow County Council have not received funding from the Department of Sport’s Large Scale Sports Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF) to develop a long awaited swimming pool and multi-use sports facility in West Wicklow.

The Community Pool for West Wicklow campaign are bitterly disappointed with the news that Wicklow County Council have not received funding from the Department of Sport’s Large Scale Sports Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF) to develop a long awaited swimming pool and multi-use sports facility in West Wicklow.

This is the second time that this project has been denied funding by the Department of Sport, with Wicklow County Council having previously been unsuccessful in their application to the LSSIF in 2019. Following the LSSIF grant announcement in 2020 members of the Community Pool for West Wicklow campaign committee met with representatives from the Department of Sport to discuss how future applications could be improved.

 “We met with the Department of Sport in early 2021, online during the pandemic, and discussed with them how any future applications to the LSSIF by Wicklow County Council for the development of a swimming pool could be made stronger. One of the key things to come out of that meeting was that we needed to be able to prove that if a swimming pool was developed in West Wicklow there would be an increase in participation in sport in the local area,” explained campaign founder and Chairperson, Deirdre McCormack.

 “There are no swimming pools in West Wicklow that are open to the public so being able to prove that people would use one without having one presented us with a problem. But our community were determined to rise to this challenge and we teamed up with Swim Ireland, the National Governing Body for Swimming in Ireland, and brought a Pop-Up Pool to Blessington for three months,” further explained Ms McCormack.

 “Over 600 children a week learned how to swim in the Pop-Up Pool when it was here. People of all ages travelled from across West Wicklow to use the pool, we had aquafit classes, life saving classes, autism swimming classes and local schools using the pool. Our community more than proved the need and demand for the development of a swimming pool in the area.”

 “So, today’s announcement that the Council have not received funding for the development of much-needed sports facilities and infrastructure in the west of the county is a huge blow to our community here. Swimming is a life skill which everyone should have the opportunity to learn, sport is supposed to be inclusive and accessible. But right now, in West Wicklow we are feeling forgotten and that our children are being denied access to essential sports and recreational amenities,” added Deirdre.

None of the projects that Wicklow County Council applied for funding for under the LSSIF were successful. These include the extension to Coral Leisure Centre in Wicklow Town and the recreation park development at Ballywaltrim in Bray.

Wicklow was one of only seven counties to receive no funding from the scheme.