Peterborough hydrotherapy pool to be ‘mothballed’ by council after plug is pulled on sale

Peterborough’s St George’s Hydrotherapy pool is set to be mothballed by Peterborough City Council.
Thousands of residents have used the pool over the past 10 yearsThousands of residents have used the pool over the past 10 years
Thousands of residents have used the pool over the past 10 years

The pool was up for sale, with a private physiotherapy provider in talks to buy the site.

But now councillors have been told the sale has been stopped, and the site will be mothballed.

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It had been hoped the sale of the pool would bring savings of £50,000 a year for the next three years - and it was thought the sale was close to be completed.

But in a letter to councillors sent on behalf of Adrian Chapman, Executive Director for Place and Economy for Peterborough City Council, last night, it was confirmed the council had pulled out of the sale.

The letter reads:

Dear Members,

You will be aware that we have been working to progress the sale of St George’s Hydrotherapy Pool to a private physiotherapy provider. I am writing to let you know that we have decided not to progress with the sale of the pool at this time.

We are now planning to mothball the facility to give us further time to consider all our options for the site. We are also working with Heltwate Special School, which is already at capacity and shares the site, to understand if they could make use of the building to help with this.”

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The specialist pool, in Dogsthorpe Road, Dogsthorpe recently celebrated its 10th anniversary, and has been used by thousands of residents over the past decade.

The announcement to sell the pool came in October last year, just four years after the council spent £45,000 on the pool fixing leaks, removing asbestos and carry out other minor refurbishment works.

At the time of the announcement, council leader Wayne Fitzgerald said; “The council does not provide health services and hydrotherapy is a health service. It has been a bugbear for us because we firmly believe health should pay for the pool but health has refused to do so.

“But because we recognise the pool’s importance to residents we have done our very best to keep it going.”

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The Peterborough Telegraph has contacted Peterborough City Council and the leaders of the Conservative Party, Labour Party, Liberal Democrats, The Green Party and Peterborough First on the council, for comment about the move.