Watch more of our videos on Shots!
and live on Freeview channel 276

Peterborough City Council revealed in September that the Regional Fitness & Indoor Swimming Centre in Bishop’s Road was due to be demolished, with a new facility to be built at Pleasure Fair Meadow Car Park in Oundle Road.

The plans have now been supported by an external review and will be signed off by the Conservative-run Cabinet on Monday before being put before councillors for final endorsement.

The new site is expected to deliver: an eight lane, 25m pool with 300 spectator seats; a 17mx15m teaching pool; a sauna; 350sqm of ‘leisure water’, with water features and a toddler splash area; a 175-station gym; two exercise studios, a yoga studio and a spin studio; a four-court sports hall and a soft-play area, as well as potentially a café.

However, the option of re-locating the city’s hydrotherapy pool to the facility is not expected to be agreed due to “limited operational benefits,” while a diving pool is also unlikely to be included due to a “lack of demand”.

Moreover, the review from SLC (the Sport, Leisure and Culture Consultancy) does not mention plans for an underground car park which have previously been put forward.

Works could begin in early 2022 and finish 18 months later, although this is seen as the best case scenario.

The project is being pursued as the Regional Pool, which was built in 1976, is “reaching the end of its effective operational life as a leisure centre” and will cost £13.2 million just to be maintained over the next decade, meaning it would be more cost-effective to invest in a new facility.

The council has not ruled out re-purposing the current site to be part of the new Peterborough university which is opening nearby in 2022.

The external review has indicated that the new facility would cost around £38 million - financed through borrowing - and would make a loss of £400,000 a year for the first 15 years (including borrowing costs), but over a 40 year period would be “broadly cost-neutral”.

The importance of having a new pool was indicated by a review conducted in 2017, funded by Sports England, which stated that Peterborough has a shortage of nine, 25m swimming pool lanes relative to the English average per population.

This is expected to rise to 14 lanes by 2035, at which point there would also be a forecast shortage of 13 indoor courts.

The current Regional Pool has a six-lane, 25m pool as well as diving and teaching pools, on top of a 90 station fitness suite. The pool is shared between more than 25 schools, City of Peterborough Swimming Club, other groups and residents, leading to a shortage of space.

The Fair Meadow car park is currently owned by the Peterborough Investment Partnership (PIP) - a joint venture between the council and Lucent Strategic Land Fund.

The site - which makes a profit of around £110,000 a year - was leased back to the council to continue being used as a car park for a period of five years which expires on November 24.

The external review indicated that other ways of making money from the new facility could include from naming rights - making it a pick-up point for services such as Amazon Locker - or from advertising.

The latter is said to have “significant potential” due to the building facing the East Coast Main Line, with the review adding: “The opportunity of advertising on one wall of the facility – even if it is largely city promotion – sensitively undertaken could yield benefits.”

£38m to replace Peterborough’s Regional Pool set for approval