Peterborough MP demands creation of regeneration fund to help protect the Lido
Peterborough’s MP has called for a Lido Regeneration Fund to be created to protect historic open air swimming pools as new figures show 82,000 users of the city’s venue.
The demand from Andrew Pakes comes just a year after the Labour-run Peterborough City Council had warned residents to use the 90-year-old Lido in Bishop’s Road or risk losing it after initial plans were revealed to mothball the facility to save money.
That warning and the hottest summer on record might have helped with some 82,000 swims this season with a few weeks still to go before the Lido closes for the winter.
During the closed season, the council spent £90,000 on covers for the two pools to save heating costs.
But Mr Pakes, who has just been appointed as co-convenor of Labour Friends of Lidos and Public Baths, says lidos in Peterborough and across the country are community assets that need protecting.
And he said the forecast of a trend of hotter and longer summers meant Lidos had a vital role to play in ensuring the wellbeing of residents.
He said: “The government should look at creating a Lido Regeneration Fund to back these joyous expressions of pride and place.
“The government should back our lidos for leisure, health and climate purposes. The forthcoming Water Bill should also include provision for water companies to support these pools.”
Mr Pakes said: “It has been a phenomenal summer for lidos.
“They are becoming more popular and often heritage assets - we can’t allow them to go wrong.”
Wring in the House of Commons’ magazine, The House, he states: “Lidos are not simply leisure amenities that happen to be old.
"They were a public health programme.
"Peterborough’s opened in 1936, in a decade of recession and dole queues, with a loan from the Ministry of Health.
“Britain had more than 300 lidos by the end of the 1930s.
“Then we let them go and by 1990 only roughly a third were still open.
He said: “The challenges lidos face have not gone away but there will be more summers like this one to come.
"Heatwaves are arriving earlier and more often, and every council with an outdoor pool should be asking when it will open.”