A CAMPAIGN to rebuild an open air swimming pool in Abergavenny has won the support of hundreds of people, including actor Michael Sheen.

Campaigner Craig Titchener, who runs the popular Facebook group Abergavenny Voice, shared a nostalgic photo of Bailey Park’s open air pool which quickly led to a wave of support to reopen the site, demolished in 2006.

After teaming up with the Friends of Bailey Park group, campaigners also won support on Twitter and Facebook from famous faces such as Michael Sheen, poet Owen Sheers and weatherman Derek Brockway.

Monmouthshire County Council has said reopening the pool would require “an Herculean effort”, but campaigner Mr Titchener is not giving up.

He said a similar campaign raised £36,000 to re-open a pool in Lydney.

“If other places can do it, why can’t Abergavenny,” he said.

If the open-air pool cannot be re-opened, Mr Titchener hopes a splash pool could be built in the area to bring it back into use and provide a boost to the park.

Shirley Barnfield, a member of Friends of Bailey Park, said she had fond memories of using the pool in the 1950s when swimming galas, polo and other social events would be held.

“I cannot see it re-opening but that does not stop us wishing,” she said.

A spokesman for Monmouthshire County Council, said: “Re-opening the pool would involve an Herculean effort, as it is no longer there. The site was demolished in 2006 and filled in and is now a fully grassed level area of the park, so any proposal to run an open air swimming pool would involve the initial costs of construction.

“Abergavenny’s small resident population indicates that it would be difficult to write a viable business plan to underpin any proposal for large scale investment in a new pool, either in the park or in another location in the town.”

A Friends of Bailey Park meeting at Abergavenny Conservative Club on Wednesday at 7pm will discuss the plans.