No cheap options for rebuilding Raac-affected pool

A council leader said there were no cheap options to rebuild a soon-to-be-demolished swimming pool.

A new Regional Pool for Peterborough would be "exceptionally expensive," a city council meeting heard, after calls were made to replace the facility.

A soft strip of the Bishop's Road site began this month after asbestos and reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) was found in the building.

The city council's Labour leader, Dennis Jones, said the authority was looking at a number of options to rebuild the site, "none of which are coming cheap".

The council confirmed the discovery of Raac - a cheaper type of concrete that has limited lifespan - inside the pool building in mid-2024 and made the decision to demolish the site.

The demolition began this month and it is due to be completely razed by the spring.

Since the decision, calls for a new leisure centre, including a swimming pool, have been made, said the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The authority previously said a replacement pool could cost about £30m and hoped to have it completed by 2028.

Conservative councillor and former leader, Wayne Fitzgerald, pointed out there was "no provision for capital investment in the budget" and asked how it would create the facility.

The city council has predicted a £23m budget gap for 2025 to 2026, because of increased demand for services and rising costs.

At a joint meeting of the scrutiny committees on Wednesday, executive director of place and economy at the council, Adrian Chapman, said officers had been working hard "on a very detailed proposal" to open a new pool.

He said: "It is, as councillor Jones mentioned, exceptionally expensive.

"We think there is a commercial model here that would fund a pool to the specification that we would seek."

Peterborough's 88-year-old Lido is currently the only public swimming pool in the city centre.

The council initially proposed to mothball the outdoor pool to save £400,000 a year, but reversed the plan after opposition.

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