The second Westbury campus consultation had an overwhelming response, with town residents voting strongly in favour of keeping the swimming pool, library and sports centre.

More than 1,000 people responded to the consultation, which asked whether people wanted a one, two or three site campus, with 80 per cent wanting the favourite option.

results were presented by the Community Operations Board (COB) at the Westbury Area Board meeting at The Laverton last Thursday.

There were 810 votes for the three-site campus, the only option that would see the Victorian pool stay open. The two-site campus got 106 votes and the one-site new-build received 89 votes.

Brenda Pyne, who chairs the COB, said: “We ran the consultation much longer than normal, as we wanted as many comments and responses as we could get.

“The COB has made appearances at a number of events, including a strong presence at the Christmas Fayre, while the consultation was also widely distributed in the Christmas magazine.”

“We had 1,005 responses in total to the consultation and that is a really good result. We have had one of the best responses in the county.

“It is clear from the response that people did not want facilities such as the pool and the library to move out of where they are now and option one was an overwhelming favourite.”

The full results, along with some of the comments, will be presented at the next area board meeting, due on Feb-ruary 6 at the Leigh Park Community Centre.

A working proposal will then be developed and presented to the board later in the year.

Cllr Jonathan Seed, cabinet member with responsibility for campuses, who attended the meeting, said: “This consultation has been one of the best responses in the county and the COB is to be congratulated on that.”