Cost for destruction of Peterborough's St George's Hydrotherapy Pool revealed

The cost of the destruction of St George’s Hydrotherapy Pool has been revealed.

A Freedom of Information Request from the St George's Hydrotherapy Users Group has shown that the controversial destruction of the pool cost the city council £16,705.21 plus VAT.

The users group have spoken of their anger after the decision.

Karen Oldale said she felt pool users ‘had been treated very badly’ and said: “I hope all councillors can now work quickly and constructively together to remedy this and ensure there will be a positive outcome for St George’s users and the future of community hydrotherapy, which can benefit everyone, in our city.”

The council has said it needed to close the pool to save funds, and the authority does not need to provide hydrotherapy sessions in the city

Earlier this year, the Peterborough Telegraph published pictures of the destroyed pool. There are proposals in place to turn the building into classrooms for Heltwate School.

Timeline of events

The Freedom of Information Request to the city council also shows a timeline of the decisions.

The Peterborough Telegraph exclusively revealed that the pool was being closed last year.

The FOI says: “The decision to close the Pool was made by the Cabinet in July 2022. The then Leader and Deputy Leader of the Council subsequently requested that the pool be fully decommissioned in order to ensure that the decision not to reopen could be properly actioned.”

The works commenced in August 2022 and were completed in June 2023, broken down as follows:

29/07/2022 – Drain down pool for decommissioning.

09/08/2022 – Strip out boiler room boilers. pumps, calorifier, filter and pipework, including pool plant.

12/09/22 – Asbestos survey

23/11/22 – Asbestos removal

23/22/22 – Isolate all power to the plant room.

18/01/2022 Patch repair holes in roof following removal of boiler flues

02/06/2023 – Break out pool

A planning application for the classrooms has now been submitted by the council.

Plans for a new pool have also been submitted by Dr Neil Modha at the Thistlemoor GP surgery in Peterborough.

The users group have welcomed the move – but have called for some alterations to the designs, including more blue badge parking spaces and more space for changing rooms.