Residents are aiming to trigger a “community right to buy” designation for the New Earswick Swimming Pool and the Strensall Library

If agreed at a York Council meeting scheduled for 9th April, residents would have 6 months to raise enough funds to purchase the buildings, should they be placed on the market for sale.

The New Earswick pool has been under threat for over a year. The owners, JoRo Housing Trust, told users that it would be closing. Talks had continued over its future with the expectation that a negotiated way forward would be achieved. A large petition was collected last year seeking to retain the popular amenity.

The application for the Strensall library is a separate issue and appears to have been prompted by a proposed rationalisation of the number and spread of library facilities across the City. The management of libraries in the City is currently carried out by a community benefit society under contract to the City of York Council. This contract is due to be re tendered later this year.

Recent negotiations between the coalition partners (Tory/LibDem) who run the York Council concluded with an assurance that there would be no Library closures in the City  in the foreseeable future.