A petition has been launched to save two Aberdeen swimming pools which are due to be mothballed.
On Friday, Sport Aberdeen announced it would be shutting Hazlehead and Kincorth swimming pools in August following a review of sports facilities in the city.
The organisation is faced with a funding gap after Aberdeen City Council slashed its budget by £405,000 earlier this year.
Sport Aberdeen has said both facilities are not widely used by the public and would also require significant investment to bring them up to modern standards.
A petition has now been started online which has so far garnered close to 300 signatures.
The organisers behind the petition plan to hand it over to Aberdeen City Council.
Meanwhile, Aberdeen North MP Callum McCaig has urged the organisation to rethink its decision.
He said: “These pools are widely used, not just by local communities, but also by a number of clubs which have membership from across the city. They are important facilities that we should be keeping open.
“I know that in the case of Kincorth there’s plans for a new pool as part of the new academy, which is good news, but because of the delays – which are entirely of the council’s own making – this won’t be ready till next year. There’s no excuse for closing Hazlehead.
“They (the council) are sitting on a huge underspend and reserves, there’s no need for Sport Aberdeen to take this decision.
“This runs totally contrary to the healthy lifestyles the council should be promoting.”
Mr McCaig said he now plans to write to the council to ask for an explanation behind the decision.
But the city’s finance chief Willie Young said last night the former council leader would be “wasting his time”, as the authority had no part in the decision.
He said: “Callum McCaig is wasting his time by writing to Aberdeen City Council, this is a matter for Sport Aberdeen, not Aberdeen City Council.
“It’s not the council that makes the decision, I would have thought Callum would have known that given it was the SNP that decided to outsource the running of Sport Aberdeen.
“The SNP supported the £405,000 savings from Sport Aberdeen at the budget meeting.”
To sign the petition, visit www.change.org/p/aberdeen-city-council-stop-the-closure-of-kincorth-and-hazelhead-pools
