Worcester £10m swimming pool plans approved

The new £10m pool is expected to open in 2017

Plans to build a new £10m swimming pool in Worcester have been approved by the city council.

The eight-lane pool will be built as an extension to the city's Perdiswell Leisure Centre.

The previous Labour administration had planned a smaller six-lane pool but the ruling Conservative group has scaled up the plans.

Councillor Alan Amos said the city's population was expanding and needed a pool "for the future".

"I could never understand why anyone would want a six-lane pool when we could have an eight-lane and that's what we've voted for," he said.

Worcester City Council has bid for funding from Sport England to cover "about a fifth of the cost" of the pool.

The rest of the money will come from "prudential borrowing" or capital receipts from the sale of the site of the current swimming pool in Sansome Walk, the council said.

The new pool is expected to open in 2017.

The new pool will be built at Perdiswell leisure centre