Sir – So many of your correspondents have said sensible things in the arguments over Temple Cowley Pools. Damian Fantato’s article (November 8) however, contained a most heartening piece of information. He reported that the pool which the city council wants to build at Blackbird Leys “has been funded”.

This is great news as it means that Temple Cowley need not be sold to pay for the new pool; what is needed now are funds to repair and update Temple Cowley, so that a large area of inner Oxford can still have access to a pool and gym.

A letter writer a few weeks ago wished for a benefactor to fund a concert hall in Oxford (amen to that too)! Is there one with the £3m to repair the much-neglected Temple Cowley Pool? The Oxford Times carried an article a few months ago about the richest people in Oxfordshire. Might not one or more of them be happy to fund this. The pool could be named after them, just as the University’s Rosenblatt pool is named after the benefactor who provided the money for it? Is there a latter-day Lord Nuffield — or two — out there?

Your correspondent, Anastasia Heath, (August 9) was right. Swimming pools need to be local and to serve a wide range of users in the locality. Ian Smith, chairman of City of Oxford Swimming Club (COSC) wrote (July 19) that he was launching a campaign on behalf of the silent majority.

It is of course, by definition, not possible to know what a silent majority thinks but I have found when talking to people living in the area served by Temple Cowley Pool, they are perplexed that the city council should want to deprive them of their pool and leisure centre.

It is understandable that COSC wants a new pool. I suspect it is less the pool that they want, than better spectator facilities and more parking for visiting teams when they host a competition.

Anastasia Heath (see above) wrote as a regular user of Ferry Pool. Am I wrong? Was not that built after a public campaign to raise the funds?

Cannot the council now allow Temple Cowley Pool to be saved pending a campaign to raise the money to repair it. £3m is an impossible sum of money to most of us but perhaps together we could raise it.

Sylvia Lymbery, St Clements