Opinion: ‘Time to modernise pool facilities’

Peterborough City Council Leader John Holdich writes:
The Regional Pool at Bishop's Road.The Regional Pool at Bishop's Road.
The Regional Pool at Bishop's Road.

Last week we announced plans to investigate building a new city centre swimming pool and leisure facility and I’ve had lots of positive comments from residents as a result.

The Regional Pool has served us well for more than 40 years and many residents continue to enjoy and love its facilities. However, it is time to look at providing a modern facility with the potential to provide even more for our growing population. So, we’re now working with the Peterborough Investment Partnership – the organisation transforming Fletton Quays – to develop a detailed business case to assess whether Pleasure Fair Meadow car park could be the site for a new pool and leisure facility.

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I must stress that the plans are at a very early stage, but it is an exciting opportunity to explore developing a new city centre swimming pool and leisure facility.

We are fully committed to providing high quality leisure facilities in Peterborough and on that subject, I’m pleased to say that the transfer of arts, leisure and heritage services from Vivacity back into council control is going well.

Vivacity and the council have now opened three leisure centres and five libraries with excellent customer feedback around the safety measures that have been put in place. This week, following our request, Vivacity trustees agreed to extend the service transfer date to September 30 to help ensure a smooth transition for customers, staff and residents of Peterborough. At this point, it is proposed Vivacity colleagues will transfer to City College Peterborough Foundation and Peterborough Limited. And to set the record straight, the current staff who are the experts in these services will be taking the lead in continuing to provide these high-quality services.

The extra time will allow a smooth transfer for customers, staff and all involved to make sure there is minimal impact for you, as service users.

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Whether you’re a gym member, staff member, library user or have tickets to a show at the Key Theatre, I know you will be watching with interest to find out how the transfer impacts on you individually and on the city as a whole. As the city recovers from the covid-19 pandemic, we will be watching keenly to see how customers use Vivacity services, by this I mean, whether or not you are happy to work out,

visit events and travel to heritage sites largely as before. Vivacity have told us that many customers have already returned, and they have received many positive comments from them. If you have any suggestions on how services could be tweaked, such as the provision of more open-air fitness classes, virtual events or services do tell us. After re-opening many facilities, such as Vivacity Premier Fitness, Central Library, the Regional Pool and Fitness Centre and

Peterborough Athletics Track, we will continue to re-launch your local facilities as soon as we are able. I want you all to rest assured that arts, leisure and heritage are of vital importance to the city council as we help the city bounce back following covid-19. It fits into our plans for the redevelopment of Peterborough through the Government’s Towns Fund bid, plans for a new stadium for Peterborough United and what will be needed to support the forthcoming university. You can rest assured that we will continue to work hard to keep you safe and to keep the city moving forward.

You’ve probably heard in the media about the rising number of confirmed coronavirus cases nationally. Luckily the number of people dying remains very low, but with more and more people contracting the virus it is possible this could change in the near future and that we see a return of lockdown.

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We know that the people who are catching the virus at the moment are young people – the under 30s to be specific. Of course, young people want to be out and about, seeing friends and having a good time.

But we know that quite often they will have the virus and show no symptoms at all and be spreading it to people who may become quite poorly as a result. Please, consider how you act and how this will impact the people you care about – your older relatives, friends and work colleagues and indeed people you know with conditions that make them more vulnerable. l Finally, it was pleasing to read this week that Peterborough has been named the third greenest place in the UK by holiday rental company Holidu. The company used an open street maps database to analyse the UK cities with the largest area of parks per person.

We do have a good amount of green space and quality green space too with three Green Flag award winning parks – Central Park which has held the accolade for a remarkable 17 years, Itter Park in Walton and Manor Farm Park in Eye. And, of course, there’s Ferry Meadows too which is a real asset to the city.