Peterborough City Council 'intends' to appoint Regional Pool car park contractor 'next week'

Peterborough City Council (PCC) "intends" to appoint a contractor to begin work on a temporary car park for Regional Pool users next week, a spokesperson has said.

The car park is planned just east of the Regional Pool site on Bishop’s Road, the spokesperson added, and will have 128 spaces available.

A timescale for construction will be confirmed "at this point".

The need for a new car park arose after it was confirmed the current Regional Pool car park would be handed over to ARU Peterborough for a new teaching building and laboratory this month.

Building work on this project has not yet begun, but is due to begin in “spring/summer 2023” with a view to opening in autumn 2024, the university says.

Currently, pool members are being offered three-hour permits to park for free in Bishop’s Road car park (five minutes’ walk from the pool), the Riverside Car Park (eight minutes’ walk) or the Car Haven (also eight minutes’ walk).

The original Regional Pool car park was a three minute walk away.

Emma Crist, a customer advisor at the Regional Pool, confirmed that short-term permits are being handed out, but added that this is also temporary

Staff are “hoping for a permanent solution”, she said.

The next step is work on the temporary car park, which a PCC spokesperson said last month would likely be built on the disused football pitches east of the Regional Pool.

In an update, a spokesperson said: “Next week we intend to appoint a contractor to begin work on a 128-space temporary car park to the East of the Regional Pool site.

“We will also be able to confirm construction timescales at this point.”

In the meantime, parking arrangements will remain the same.

“Four disabled bays will be retained outside the main building and some additional spaces have been located at the coach drop off point for customer use,” the spokesperson said.

“There are also temporary parking passes available for gym members, swim academy members and the athletics club members to use at the nearby Bishop’s Road and Car Haven car parks, which is approximately five minutes away by foot and will be free of charge for members.”

The update follows assurances from councillors that pool members would not be “inconvenienced at all” by the loss of the Regional Pool car park.

At a full Council meeting three weeks ago, Cllr Marco Cereste (Conservatives) said that it’s “not the case that people are going to have to walk further and it’s not the case that they’re going to be inconvenienced” by the loss of the original car park.

The Cabinet member for planning added that PCC would be “creating more space in a temporary car park nearby until the future is clear as to what we’re going to do for the city and the pool.”

That future involves knocking the pool down and rebuilding it elsewhere, according to PCC leader Wayne Fitzgerald (Conservatives) who said at the same meeting that the current pool is “costing us a lot of money that we can’t afford”.

He added that a “number of sites” have been identified for relocation, but again did not refer to a timeframe for this.

Plans to knock down the pool date back as far as 2020.