Plans to repair and refurbish an unused outdoor swimming pool and nearby promenade in South Cumbria are set to move forward.
The Grange Lido project is to include an upgrade of the central pavilion building at the pool, infilling of the pool itself, and a new children’s playground along the promenade.
A full meeting of South Lakeland District Council approved an additional £1,793,800 for the work.
A report authored by Paul Scullion, the authority’s acting operational lead for asset and commercial services, says structural elements of the pool would be at imminent risk of either partial or complete failure without immediate intervention.
As well as harming a Grade II-listed structure, this would, he says, ‘leave the council exposed to higher expenditure, heritage enforcement action and irreparable reputational damage’.
The revised cost of the lido scheme stands at £6.8 million and the budget allocated for work so far is £5,006,200. The additional funding would cover this shortfall, with £1m in funding coming from the Government’s Coastal Communities Fund.
Mr Scullion says in his report that the plan for the lido is to involve a series of well-considered stabilisation measures to preserve the building and structural elements at greatest risk of failure.
“The male and female changing accommodation will be mothballed internally for refurbishment at a later stage, although will benefit from stabilisation works including the roof and terraces, security, cleaning, and external decoration,” he says.
“Significant structural and architectural works will repair the concrete terracing around the perimeter of the pool, including strategic concrete repairs to the diving board structure, which is unstable in its current form.”
Work proposed along the promenade includes application of a new, durable coating to its surface, repairs to, and removal of unstable sections of, the sea wall, and public realm furniture.
“The promenade sea wall is constructed from unreinforced mass concrete,” says Mr Scullion. “The wall has been found to be in poor condition in various locations, with repair works required along much of its length to prolong its residual life.”
