A WAR veteran has scored another victory in his campaign to see Ellesmere Port get a new outdoor leisure centre.

Nigel Hunt, who served in Iraq with the Territorial Army, believes picturesque Rivacre Valley should be the setting for a replacement for the town’s crumbling EPIC leisure centre.

He wants to see the new facility based around an outdoor swimming pool and have associated boating and fishing facilities.

It would hark back to the days when the valley housed a popular outdoor pool, which was eventually bulldozed in the 1980s to be replaced by the EPIC.

Mr Hunt has been battling hard to promote his scheme and has collected thousands of signatures for a petition which he will hand into the borough council.

He also recently had a meeting with council leader, Cllr Justin Madders, who agreed to have officers add Rivacre Valley to the shortlist of possible sites for the new centre.

Mr Hunt says the 2.3-acre valley location has many advantages in that it has little residential development and enjoys easy bus and motorway access.

The other sites on the list are Wellington Road car park, Ellesmere Port bus station, Whitby Park car park, Civic Way car park, the former HH Robertson site in Cromwell Road and Cheshire Oaks High School.

All of these, he says, would present more problems to develop than Rivacre Valley.

Apart from his meeting with Cllr Madders, Mr Hunt has also had an encouraging meeting about his idea with borough MP Andrew Miller and has had many letters of support published in the Pioneer.

The consultants employed by the council to look into the feasibility of each of the sites will make their initial report on December 2.