Taxpayers spent £200,000 on decommissioned pool

The Regional Pool is planned to be demolished by the city council at a cost of £2.5m

A city council has spent £200,000 in the past year on a regional pool earmarked for demolition, it has emerged.

Peterborough’s Regional Pool was closed last year after reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) was found in the building. Previously, the facility struggled with other issues including structural cracking, out-of-date mechanical installations and damaged asbestos.

Peterborough City Council said it would cost them £26.3m to repair the facility, which was built in the 1970s.

Instead, the authorities have pledged a new £30m pool for the city, scheduled to be completed by 2028. In the meantime, modular pools which require no excavating are being considered as an alternative.

In the past year, thousands of pounds has been pumped into the regional pool, and a £1m temporary car park was established at the site on Bishop’s Road.

Responding to a request for information, the council revealed that in 2023-24, £104,000 was spent on asbestos works and fan motors before it was decided to decommission the building.

This was the largest influx of capital investment the pool had received since 2015-16.

The council also spent £50,000 on inspections and testing.

The council previously said it had spent £275,000 in response to Legionella bacteria outbreaks.

Between 2014 and 2024, £723,349 was invested into the pool in total, the figures show.

A further £355,430 was spent on maintenance and repairs and £328,434 on inspections and testing in this period.

In recent years, the average annual cost of maintenance and repairs has doubled, from an average of £26,000 a year from 2015/16 to 202/21 to an average of £57,000 in the last three financial years.

Demolishing the pool could cost the council up to £2.5m, but it says this will be offset by how much the value of the land the pool’s built on increases and how much it will save on security and monitoring.