City pool is halfway there after £20m Budget boost

The former Regional Pool site on Bishop's Road was demolished

Funding for a new leisure centre and swimming pool for Peterborough has reached the halfway point after Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced £20m of government money in her Budget.

The city's former regional pool was decommissioned and demolished because of multiple structural issues, after the council estimated it would cost £26m in repairs.

The chancellor told Parliament on Wednesday that the money for a Peterborough sports quarter would come from the Growth Mission Fund.

A new pool would cost £38m, and Morgan Stevenson, co-chair of the City of Peterborough Swimming Club, said: "We still need the remaining funding to ensure the new facility opens as early as possible."

Plans for a 25-metre, eight-lane main pool and fitness centre were being developed, and if the full funding could be secured, the city council said, construction work would start early in 2027, with completion expected in the summer of 2028.

The council said plans included a 20m four-lane learner pool and a health and wellbeing suite, as well as a fitness suite with 150 stations and studios.

Rachel Reeves included the sports quarter in her Budget announcement on Wednesday

The swimming club has been left without a home since the regional pool shut.

Mr Stevenson said they were "absolutely thrilled" after the chancellor's announcement and called it a "vital step".

"This £20m commitment gets us halfway there, enough to start and build momentum, but we still need the remaining funding to ensure the new facility opens as early as possible," he said.

"The city deserves a pool it can be proud of, and we're determined to help make that happen."

The location has yet to be decided but in the chancellor's Spending Review in the summer, she said a sports quarter would form part of the Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) campus in Peterborough and would "drive activity and community cohesion".

Prof Ross Renton, principal and chief executive of ARU Peterborough, said the university "looks forward to being a strategic partner to the new pool and gym, and our students and staff will benefit greatly from having these fabulous facilities next to our city-centre campus".