Our support for protests against Exeter Council's proposed £20 million city centre swimming pool has received a lot of coverage.
Last week TPA supporters joined forces with local residents campaigning against turning Exeter Bus station into a public swimming pool, saddling the council with debt for a pool that few people actually want. You can read all about the issue on our blog here.
Since then we've had some media coverage of our involvement from the following sources.
Read our quotes here or click the links to read more:
The TaxPayers’ Alliance comes to Exeter to support local campaigners appalled at the council’s proposed expenditure of £20m of taxpayers’ money on a city centre swimming pool that no one really wants.
"It has all the elements of a classic white elephant," says the Taxpayers’ Alliance South West spokesman Tim Newark, looking down on the bus station site from a nearby multi-storey car park.
"We are a national grassroots organisation dedicated to fighting a War on Waste, our current campaign, and in an age of austerity when there are so many demands on public money, the thought of lavishing £20m on a swimming pool that, frankly, has little popular support, seems an outrageous misuse of public money."
Founded in 2004 by Matthew Elliott and now with 80,000 supporters, the TaxPayers’ Alliance (TPA) fights to reform taxes, cut spending and protect taxpayers. Find out more about the TaxPayers' Alliance at www.taxpayersalliance.com
The alliance said South West spokesman Tim Newark recently visited Exeter to support ‘local campaigners’ who are ‘appalled at the council’s proposed expenditure of £20m of taxpayers’ money on a city centre swimming pool that no-one really wants’.
Mr Newark said: “It has all the elements of a classic white elephant.”
Looking down on the site from the multi-storey car park in Princesshay with Exeter’s Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate Dom Morris and former city centre manager John Harvey, who is standing for the Tories in the local elections, Mr Newark said: “We are a national grassroots organisation dedicated to fighting a War on Waste, our current campaign.
“And in an age of austerity when there are so many demands on public money, the thought of lavishing £20m on a swimming pool that, frankly, has little popular support, seems an outrageous misuse of public money.”
The Exeter Express and Echo article also featured on South West News