End of the line for Broomhill Pool?

On 16th December 2008 the Executive Committee of Ipswich Borough Council met to discuss a report entitled the Pools Development Options report.



This report looked at the options available for the "short to medium term future" of the swimming pools owned by Ipswich Borough Council including Crown Pools, Fore St Baths and Broomhill Pool.



For the Crown Pools complex and for Fore St Baths there is council support, but the option voted through for the Broomhill Lido was dire indeed and is likely to spell the end of any hopes for restoration of this Olympic-sized pool.



Broomhill Pool was opened originally in 1938 and for over 60 years was one of the highlights of the summer season in Ipswich. However, in the autumn of 2002 the gates closed and in February 2003 the local Evening Star made headlines with their Broomhill is Doomhill announcement.



A continuous campaign has been fought to try and save this Grade II Listed pool and a bid for Heritage Lottery Funding was submitted in March 2008 by the Broomhill Pool Trust, with high hopes that it would be successful as it was backed, apparently, by the offer of £1 million from the Council.



In September 2008 the bid was rejected, with the HLF spokesman saying that they needed to see more commitment from Ipswich Borough Council: the £1 million had been promised, but not secured, they said.



The Council's response to the request for more "commitment" was given in this Pools Option report discussed on 16th December and shows that they simply intend to fill the lido in with "granular infill or similar" and "sand or similar". Altogether an estimated £113,000 will be spent on draining the pool, dismantling the diving boards and filling the pool in with £55,000 worth of sand and £20,000 of the granular infill and once this is done, any chances of restoration will be very greatly reduced.



This Pools Development Options was prepared after consultation with the Chief Executive, the Portfolio Holder for Arts, Culture and Leisure, the Head of Finance etc. BUT....... there was no consultation with English Heritage or the Twentieth Century Society or the Council's own Conservation experts.



At the Committee meeting itself, verbal reassurances were given that there would be consultation with heritage organisations after the vote had been taken; but there were no amendments to Option B1 for Broomhill Pool and no written confirmation of such consultation.

The Council are aware that i) Listed Building Consent should be obtained and ii) that failure to obtain such consent can lead to prosecution. But no guarantees were given that Listed Building Consent would actually be obtained before tons of sand and granular infill were poured into our lido.

This Grade II Listed 1938 lido is therefore very much at risk. The Council's decision to prepare a report on making major changes to a Listed property without heritage consultation is a very serious one indeed; I can only infer from this, that they did not believe English Heritage would give consent for these particular measures.