The Friends of Broomhill Pool have done terrific work raising public consciousness over the last year with a Saturday stall on the Cornhill, holding meetings and collecting over 16,000 names for the petition which was presented by Sir Michael Lord MP to Councillor John Mowles. They have been supported by numerous letters to the Evening Star and East Anglian Daily Times as well as appearances on local radio and one on TV.

The good news is that the full council and the Executive Committee of Ipswich Borough Council have agreed to set up a Steering Group to oversee the development of options for securing the future use of Broomhill Pool. The Steering Group's members will be locality councillors of all hues, representatives of the Trust and local residents, Council officers and Sir Michael Lord. The exact composition has yet to be decided.

To ensure the continuing support of the community, to improve the cohesion of the organisation and to start raising funds, the Friends of Broomhill Pool have changed into The Broomhill Pool Trust, a simple trust that has applied for Charity Commission registration. Clearly the group will have an enormous task to raise the finance but we feel it is possible. We will then have to grapple with the problem of how to manage the pool for the next twenty years so that it loses less money. We have a lot of ideas; it looks as though climate change will be on our side! Over the next few months the Committee of the Trust will be helping the Steering Group as well as keeping up the publicity. Suffolk County Council through its Locality Fund has supported us generously so that we can set off on the next steps. We shall start fund raising soon and we are looking for active supporters who can help us - any volunteers please get in touch. And we have a web site www.savebroomhillpool.org and a logo. Visit and sign our petition on-line.

MIKE COOK, Chairman, The Broomhill Pool Trust