Council pools made colder as heating bills rise

The council acknowledged there had been complaints

Soaring inflation and energy costs have prompted Nottingham City Council to lower water temperature at its swimming pools.

However, the change has led some users to complain the water is now too cold.

The move was revealed at a scrutiny committee meeting on Wednesday.

Inflation is expected to add somewhere in the region of £15m to the Labour-run authority's costs for the next financial year, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

This includes an extra £6.9m to fund a 10% pay rise for staff in response to rising inflation.

'A balance'

Council leader David Mellen said: "I think there is a huge element of the budget which is inflation-based.

"Fuel costs are having a varying effect so clearly when we do things like running swimming pools we have slightly changed the temperature of the pools.

"We have received people saying, ‘it’s too cold in your pools’, so you know there is a balance there because you still want people to use your facilities but we don’t want to heat things more than we need to.”

The authority has until the end of this month to meet 67 new requirements from a government-appointed improvement board, introduced due to its financial troubles over recent years.