Watton swim pool hopes are sinking

Hopes of seeing a swimming pool built in a mid-Norfolk market town could be dashed because of restrictive terms in the planning permission a developer has warned.

Hopes of seeing a swimming pool built in a mid-Norfolk market town could be dashed because of restrictive terms in the planning permission a developer has warned.

The owners of Richmond Park Golf Club in Watton were granted approval to build a pool and fitness centre on land next to their 18 hole course, off Saham Road, more than two years ago.

Under the terms of the permission a new footpath would have to be built from the town to the golf course and junction improvements carried out in High Street.

Currently the nearest pool is in Dereham and a recent survey by the golf club showed there was a big demand for the new facility to be built.

But now course owner Richard Jessop has said that although he want to go ahead and built the pool the terms of the planning permission he was granted would make it financially unviable.

While he estimates the path would cost him about �40,000, he says the junction improvements would cost him more than �100,000, a sum he is not prepared to spend.

He said: 'I am being expected to pay for it all and I am building something that will be an asset to the town.

'I have said that I will allow the schools to use the swimming pool free of charge and I am quite happy to put the path in because it will be for people coming down here but I do not see what we have got to do with the junction.'