THE Friends of Bude Sea Pool (FoBSP) have been invited by Bude-Stratton Town Council to discuss the possibility of the council taking ownership of the sea pool from Cornwall Council.

Following a letter from the FoBSP with the request, the town council properties committee discussed the matter last Thursday.

Town clerk Donna James gave an outline of the letter to councillors, explaining that members of FoBSP would like to be given the opportunity to come and discuss their reasons for the request, and that apart from the overall ownership changing hands, they would still like to continue their 99-year lease.

All councillors were in agreement that the FoBSP should be invited to a meeting to provide more details about their request but felt given the scale of the item, it was an item that should be put in front of the full council rather than a single committee.

Cllr Julia Bryson said she would like to find out what FoBSP would gain from having the town council taking over ownership of the sea pool and would like to see such details in their presentation when a date has been set.

Cllr Frank Partridge said: “We would need to see what the current terms of the agreement are with Cornwall Council and see what our responsibilities would be if we were to take it on.”

The reason for initial concern was over the possibility of anything going wrong at the pool that would require major work, and the town council had to foot the bill.

For that reason, councillors decided two members of the FoBSP be invited to give a short, detailed presentation of what ownership would entail, what the council’s responsibilities would be, and why there needed to be a change of ownership.

The presentation is due to take place at a full council meeting early in the new year.