Council Independents Our West Lancashire have welcomed the public consultations on new leisure facilities for Ormskirk and Skelmersdale which commenced today - but urged continuing vigilance from the public.

This morning, Councillor Adrian Owens told QLocal: "Remember October 2015 when the Labour council threatened closure of Park Pool. Our campaign and petition stopped those plans then.

"In Spring 2016 we were the first local political group to propose a new swimming pool in Ormskirk and others followed suit. We would also earmark £4million from existing council funds - £2million in Ormskirk and £2million in Skelmersdale - towards new swimming facilities in both towns.”

The Independent Group chairman continued: “Since then, there’s been a lot of work behind the scenes from councillors of all parties to bring forward initial plans for new leisure and wellbeing hubs in both towns and the consultation on these starts today.

"Local residents helped stop the closure of Park Pool four years ago, now residents can help to improve these plans.

“These new leisure centres will have to generate surplus to make the business case to borrow to construct them. By earmarking existing council funds from previous taxation or house building as we Independents have done, we can ensure that these plans are not watered down once the next stage of financial forecasts are made.”