The news that more work needs to be carried out on Grange Lido and that the seafront facility is unlikely to be open before the summer will be shared with town councillors today.
The £6.8 million project, which also includes work on Grange promenade, began in April 2023 but last year taxpayers were warned that that the lido would not be open to the public in summer 2025 after all.
In a statement the council said: “The concrete repairs require further assessment in order to complete the investment in this much-valued asset.”
An independent surveyor was called in to avoid legal action between Westmorland and Furness Council and the contractors who worked to save the landmark structure.
Their conclusion is that more work is needed before it can reopen.
Grange councillor Tim Bloomer will be sharing more details of the resolution with members of Grange Town Council this evening and said he was feeling more optimistic about the project.
“I’m 38 now but can just about remember bobbing in the lido as a boy,” he said. “I do believe that we are closer now than at any time in the 30 odd years since it closed to getting it back into use.”
He added that from the outside it is hard for passersby to see the scale of the work that was needed to stabilise a structure built just above the Bay that includes what he describes as vast holding tanks beneath the lido’s terracing.
“They are the size of a parish church and it was a huge piece of work to repair this area of the site,” Coun Bloomer
Phase 1 of the regeneration work has seen the pool filled in with material described as both removable and recyclable.
Save Grange Lido, the group aiming to take over the site and begin phase 2 – reopening it to swimmers – said they were determined as ever to continue their work despite the delay.
“We understand that people are frustrated about the lack of visible progress at Grange Lido – and no one feels that more than the Save Grange Lido team and its members, who have worked tirelessly for many years to see the site brought back into use,” Janet Carter, the chair of trustees, said.
“Our wider plans can be seen on the Save Grange Lido website, but once the current work by the council is complete, our first step will be to reopen the main pavilion and begin sharing the history and heritage of this much-loved site with the community once again.”
