A SPLASH pad in Oswestry is no longer an immediate priority for the town council, councillors have decided.

At the first full town council meeting of the new civic year, Councillor Duncan Kerr, from the Green Party, put forward a motion to move the project – first agreed in 2021 – into its deferred projects list.

This means that there will be a freeze on resources being used to bring it forward.

It does not mean the project has been permanently shelved, but threatens to see the long-awaited family facility left in the long grass until councillors decide to bring it back to the table.

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Councillor Kerr explained that he felt there were more ‘pressing concerns’ for council money and officers’ time than the Splash Pad, which was the brainchild of Cllr Jay Moore when he was a then Green councillor.

His motion as seconded by Conservative councillor Mark Jones, who admitted his surprise that Cllr Kerr was putting the motion forward.

He said: “I am surprised that it’s come from across the floor because they said it would work but also Cllr  Moore isn’t here and at one point it was ‘over his dead body’.

“But I support this as it should never been approved.”

Cllr Kerr clarified that he was making the motion to move resources to be used elsewhere.

Cllr Moore’s Lib Dems colleagues James Owen and Jonathan Upton both attempted to defer the motion.

Cllr Owen said: “This isn’t a decision to be made now out of the blue and should be an agenda item on its own.

“This isn’t the right time.”

Cllr Josh Coburn said the deferral ‘made sense’ but urged that it was not an end to the project.

He said: “Deferring it isn’t saying no to it, but it’s more saying that officer time is limited and there are priorities such as The Centre.

“It’s not bye-bye splash pad but priorities are elsewhere.”

Cllr Kerr added: “We haven’t made any progress in the last 18 months, no major decision and I don’t think we’ll make any progress in the next few months.

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“We don’t have the resources to progress.

“It will require a lot of expertise – all I’m saying is take it off the active list and come back to it when it matters.”

Cllrs Owen and Upton, plus Rosie Radford and Sam Chadwick voted against the motion, mayor Mike Isherwood abstained but all other councillors voted it through.