Anger as home of old Peterborough hydrotherapy pool left derelict - despite planning permission to turn it into classrooms being granted MONTHS ago
St George’s Pool has been closed since the pandemic
Hydrotherapy pool users in Peterborough has spoken of their anger after the site of the facility has been left derelict – despite planning permission to turn it into classrooms being granted months ago.
The old St George’s Pool has been closed since the start of the Covid pandemic – and in April 2022, the city council said that it would be ‘mothballed’ and not re-opened.
Heltwate School applied to turn the old pool building into facilities for the special school, including classrooms, and an improved play areas – with planning permission granted in January.
However, nearly a year on, no work on transforming the site – other than to demolish the pool itself, at a cost of nearly £17,000 has taken place – and a city council spokesperson said a date had not been set for the works to begin.
Before the decision to turn the site into classrooms was agreed, the council was on the verge of selling it to physiotherapist Ranjith Mahamani – but pulled out at the last minute.
Now Karen Oldale St George's Friends and Service Users' Lead, said she was heartbroken that the site was still not being used as a hydro pool.
She said: “On 5th April 2022, a former administration of the Council announced its decision not to sell St George’s for continued community use as had previously been agreed. The reason given was that the adjoining school now needed the pool hall as a classroom. We were sceptical about the practicalities of realising this at the time.
“Now two and half years on, to see that absolutely no work has commenced (apart from the demolition of the pool) and to see the site looking so terribly neglected is frustrating and heartbreaking
“I’m frustrated because this is so unnecessary and such a terrible waste of resources. If kept open, we know the pool would have continued to thrive and would have delivered a further £9 million economic and social value to the city by now. Instead it lies forlorn and deteriorating.
“I’m heartbroken because I know some of the harm to the health and wellbeing of former users the pool’s closure has caused. Many of these had disabilities and health conditions. And of course, all those who have needed the hydrotherapy pool since. No words can do justice to this dreadful human cost.
“What is most distressing is to know that all this could and should have been avoided.”
City councillor John Fox, who has campaigned on the half of hydrotherapy pool users, added: “Heltwate School said they needed the site. That was two years ago, and it is still not built. We could have kept the pool open until there was a replacement.
"There is a community who relied on the pool, and they are the ones who are suffering.”
A spokesperson for the city council said: “Planning for the project remains ongoing and discussions with all stakeholders have meant that work on site has not yet commenced. It is not possible at this stage to say when work on site will commence.”