Campaign grows to save Carlisle's Victorian and Turkish baths

Carlisle's James Street baths is one of only several in the country still open to the public

Almost 3,000 people have backed a campaign to save historic baths.

Carlisle's council swimming facilities are to be moved from James Street to the new £27m Sands Centre, due to open in late autumn.

While the building housing the baths is protected, there are fears the baths will shut when the adjacent 1970s pool is left vacant.

Campaigners want the city council to trigger a community asset transfer to allow the public to run the baths.

The Friends of Carlisle Baths say handing ownership of the historic building to the public could lead to it being restored to its former glory.

A petition has called on the council to "end the uncertainty" around their fate.

An idea has also been proposed of incorporating the threatened 1970s pool to expand facilities, including a community laundry, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The £27m Sands Centre includes swimming pools and leisure facilities

Campaign leader Julie Minns said the longer it was left, "the more problematic it will be to operate it".

"More and more people are discovering it every week," she said.

"We've gone from last May, people saying 'I didn't know Carlisle had Turkish Baths', to 'how do we book?'."

'Awful problem'

The baths were built in 1909 but their plans and design were drawn up several years earlier during the Victorian age.

Speaking at the health and wellbeing panel, leader of Carlisle City Council John Mallinson said potential operators for the baths were being considered.

"We will not get into that awful problem of the Crown owning something it is not prepared to do anything with," he said.

"I'm sure nobody wants a derelict building standing in what should be a very exciting area for Carlisle.

"Community asset transfer, it would seem like a perfectly logical thing to do."