WATCH: Peterborough Lido saved, and to appear in Apple TV series Slow Horses - but residents told to use historic pool or lose it

Peterborough Lido will open for the 2025 season, it has been confirmed – but residents are being told to use it or lose it to keep the listed building open for generations to come.

Peterborough City Council had listed mothballing the Lido for a year as part of proposals to balance the budget and make £23 million of savings over the year. The budget papers said keeping the historic pool closed would have saved £400,000.

However, today council leader Dennis Jones said the pool would now open this year, after they had found ways to cut the costs of keeping it open – with popular Apple TV series Slow Horses set to include the location in their sixth series – but told residents it was down to them to use it.

A range of measures which will reduce the cost of operating the venue will be introduced, including installing a pool cover to reduce energy costs, reviewing fees and charges, improving the food and beverage offer, and considering the temperature of the water.

Council officers will be tasked with attracting grants and income to cover the running costs.

The 88-year-old Lido is the only public swimming pool in the city centre, with works to prepare the near-by Regional Pool for demolition already taking place.

“Given the fact that we don’t have any other swimming facility in the city centre, it is vital that we keep this open”

Cllr Jones said: “I’m delighted to say that working with The Friends (of Peterborough Lido) and with cross party support, we’ve done everything we can, and we are able to keep the Lido open in the coming year.

"We were looking originally at £400,000 (to keep the Lido open for the year), that is now down to about £120,000. But given the fact that we don’t have any other swimming facility in the city centre, it is vital that we keep this open, and we have done just that.

"These conversations will always be ongoing, but we are working with The Friends, we are working with other stakeholders to look at a longer term solution – suffice to say we are keeping it open in the short term.

"It now is down to the people of Peterborough to use it. This is a wonderful asset, we are looking at ways that we can generate additional income. We have a well known TV series that will be filming some of their season six here, but it is down to people using this wonderful, wonderful asset.

"Having taken over the leadership of Peterborough City Council following the elections last May, I and the Labour cabinet have been fighting to protect local services and community facilities while grappling with the difficult financial situation that the council has been left in.

“We are delighted that we can now confirm plans for the lido to stay open. We will work with the Friends of the Lido, who have been supportive, to keep this wonderful art deco facility open.”

“I doubt if we’ll be able to extend the season"

The news the Lido has been saved comes less than a week after the consultation on the budget proposals was released – with hundreds of people making their voices heard over the plans.

The budget proposals did suggest that the season at the Lido could be extended – however, this is now unlikely to happen.

Cllr Jones said: “We’ve had over 1,400 responses to our consultation document, over 1,000 per cent increase in what we normally have. We expect the reaction to be extremely positive – it is early days of course.

"Currently we have to look in the constraints we have, which is the current season, we will get covers for the pool, which we have never had before, for heat retention, but I doubt if we’ll be able to extend the season, but we are looking to maintain the season we currently have.”

“We have one of the best Lidos in the country"

The announcement the Lido could be mothballed led to a number of protests and petitions being set up in a bid to save it. Politicians from all sides of the political spectrum all spoke of the importance of saving the faclity.

Peterborough MP Andrew Pakes – who had set up one of the petitions to save the pool – welcomed the move to keep the Lido open for this year.

He said: “I’d like to thank Dennis and all the councillors who worked with the Friends of the Lido, the City of Peterborough Swimming Club, and everyone else who has shown any interest in this. The Lido is one of the jewels in the crown of the city, and it has been brilliant to see that even though it is tough times at the council, people can pull together and we have a solution in place, which is to keep this Lido open so we can work on a sustainable future so everyone else gets to enjoy this for generations to come.”

"We have one of the best Lidos in the country, in terms of the art deco nature. We know from others cities in other parts of the country, they have brought their Friends groups together, they’ve been able to bid for external funding to get grants. All of these things are now on the table, and I want to the council, Friends groups, swimmers, and everyone working together so we get the investment this building needs."

What next for the Peterborough City Council Budget?

Along with the proposed mothballing of the Lido, there were a number of other controversial proposals in the budget papers, including closing a majority of Peterborough libraries, and cutting back on staff working at city parks.

There is also likely to be a council tax rise in the city.

The full budget proposals will be considered by the council’s Joint Scrutiny Committee on 29 January. There will then be a council cabinet meeting on 10 February, before a full council meeting on February 19.