Boost for Rougham Primary School’s swimming pool campaign

A community fundraising campaign to fix a village swimming pool has had a welcome start to the new year thanks to the support of a West Suffolk councillor.

The Save Our Pool Campaign was started by members of the Rougham Primary School Parent Teacher Association last summer. Around £50,000 needs to be raised to fix the leaking pool which has previously been used to teach generations of pupils to swim, as well as for pre-schoolers building up water confidence and for the community to use at weekends.

The pool fundraiser has already gone great lengths towards its target with around half of the money pledged so far.

Now councillor Sara Mildmay-White, who represents Rougham on West Suffolk Council and is also the cabinet member for Strategic Health, has given £1,100 from her locality budget towards the project.

She said: “Learning to swim is such an important life skill, it can have enormous benefits for people’s health and wellbeing, it’s fun and brings people of all ages together. Having a village pool not just for pupils but for the wider community can make such a difference to people’s lives. The community fundraising campaign has been fantastic, and I’m delighted to be able to support it with funding from my locality budget.”

Emma Thurlow, office manager at the school, said so far approximately £25,000 has been raised from events organised by the PTA including a music festival and race night alongside donations from organisations such as Rougham Estates, Ravenwood Hall, Taylor Wimpey, Collins Skip Hire, Treatt, Travis Perkins, Jewsons, Ridgeons, Suffolk County Council and Sam and Nicole Jaggard.

Mrs Thurlow said: “We are very grateful to everyone who has backed our campaign so far. Our aim is to get the pool fixed and back in use by the summer and we have lots more fundraising activities planned between now and then. We have 200 pupils at the school and having the pool back will be great for them as well as for the pre-school youngsters and the local community.”

Forthcoming fundraising events include the Rougham take on the Big Fat Quiz of the year. The family quiz evening will be held this Friday, January 20, from 5pm to 8pm, at the school. Teams of up to eight can enter and entry cost £3 per person. Food and drink will be available.

And that will be followed by a Red Disco on February 10 and a Nearly New Sale on February 11, from 1pm to 4pm, entry costs £1.

For more follow www.instagram.com/rougham_save_our_pool and Rougham Primary School Swimming Pool on Facebook

You can also donate at https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/FixourPool