It looks like the council officers may be having a rethink.  This was published yesterday by the Council’s press office:

Temple Cowley Report

A report into the future of Temple Cowley Pools has been delayed after a draft report on the feasibility study raised a number of cost and affordability questions regarding the options. 

These are being pursued with Mace, the lead consultant, however, at present the report is incomplete and not ready to be published.

In the context of the challenging financial circumstances that we find ourselves in it is vital that cost and affordability issues are clear.  Only then can officers properly advise councillors on the affordability and risks of the options and place this in the overall context of the Council’s capital programme and budget.

The report was due to be discussed at Value and Performance Scrutiny yesterday (Wednesday). It was also due to be discussed at City Executive Board on 12 July.

There will be an opportunity for the scrutiny committee to consider the feasibility study and report to the City Executive Board prior to its meeting.

Tim Sadler, Executive Director, City Services, says: “We are disappointed that there has to be a delay but the financial circumstances are changing so rapidly that officers have to reassess the position carefully before advising councillors on this major strategic decision. We will also publish the feasibility study as soon as it is ready.”

We had a good discussion about Temple Cowley Pools at the group meeting tonight.  Group meetings are confidential discussions but I am happy to report, with permission, that as a new member I discovered that the group view is that we will support keeping the current pools open unless evidence arises that it is a threat to health and/or safety of the public. We will not support the construction of a competition pool on any site at this time.

I was invited to the launch this event, run by the Smith School of Economy and the Environment at the Oxford Union Society. President Mikhail Gorbachev (Former President of the Soviet Union and Founding President of Green Cross International) was the main speaker and Janez Potočnik (European Commissioner for Environment) also spoke on Climate Negotiations: six months on from Copenhagen.

Gorbachev spoke in Russian and his interpreter spoke at the same time in English.  I’m afraid it was pretty hard to hear what either was saying.

Almost like a full council meeting with lots of councillors in the room. I guess this is because we get 15% deducted from our allowance if we don’t attend these sessions!

We learned about the Council’s internal process for dealing with complaints against councillors.  The new legislation means that since May 2008 complaints have to be made to the Standards Committee of the local council. Complaint are then assessed and the choices for courses of action are to take no further action (if the complaint is not covered by the code of conduct), refer to the monitoring officer for investigation, refer to Standards for England for investigation (only in serious or complex cases where it would be inappropriate to investigate internally), or to take other action such as ordering mediation.  Standards for England is however to be abolished by the new government.