SWIMMERS love the new pool in Blackbird Leys but some fear its name will lead to visitors getting lost.

The name Leys Pool & Leisure Centre not only refers to the Blackbird Leys estate, but also the adjoining Greater Leys estate.

But residents say it does not accurately reflect where the Pegasus Road pool – which opened on Friday – is.

Paul Brackett, 55, said: “The Leys is in Witney and we’re Blackbird Leys. It should be the Blackbird Leys Pool.”

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The Thistle Drive resident said the £9.2m pool’s new name was an attempt to rename the estate to try and rid the area of a negative reputation.

While there was a public consultation on the pool’s design there was no specific consultation on its name.

Oxford Mail:

Paul Brackett

“The Blackbird Leys estate is something that we should be proud of, not trying to hide.

“The people here are good, hard-working people. It’s not a bad place, it shouldn’t have to be renamed.”

He added: “It just happened with no mention, they should have asked people about it.

“I don’t think it’s good policy. It doesn’t benefit the people at all.”

Valerie Parrott, 73, of the estate’s Jourdain Road, said: “It should be Blackbird Leys, not Leys. It was Temple Cowley Pool, not just Cowley.

“The first pool on Blackbird Leys Road was the Blackbird Leys Pool.

“They should have stuck with that.”

She added: “We’re Blackbird Leys, we’re not posh or anything and people do such good here. The pool should reflect that.”

But Kestrel Crescent resident Liz Helliwell said: “I prefer it to just be the Leys because they’re trying to bring the two places together under one title.

“I have no objection to the pool’s name, I just don’t want to be called two different things.

“Having it be Blackbird Leys and Greater Leys is confusing for outsiders.”

Blackbird Leys Parish Council chairman Gordon Roper said: “I don’t have a problem with the new name but I can understand why people are upset.

“We have had a stigma, but that’s disappeared now.

“When you think we’ve got Greater Leys as well I think people should just call us the Leys.”

City council leader Bob Price said: “Very simply it’s shorter. Blackbird Leys Pool & Leisure Centre is quite long.

“We wanted it to be easy and marketable. Leys Pool rolls of the tongue a bit more easily. There’s no other implication at all.

“The reputation Blackbird Leys has is as a very strong community that works together to do lots of good things.

“It is an area of deprivation, but there is no image we have a problem with.”


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