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Twenty years of campaigning and £9.3million of funding poured in – but Britain’s oldest lido is at risk of never opening again after a controversial restoration project ended in catastrophe.
Bath’s Cleveland Pools Trust (CPT) spent two decades fighting to restore the 200-year-old Georgian lido and after several setbacks and millions of pounds of public money, there was genuine excitement when it finally reopened in September 2023.
But in a disaster which has left locals both baffled and incandescent, the lido was forced to shut within just four months after the ‘waterproof’ and ‘floodproof’ plant room – which houses the machinery – flooded in a storm and the pool suffered structural damage.
The Daily Mail can today reveal the bitter rift between the ringleaders of the botched ‘vanity project’ and the residents who say: ‘We warned you this would happen.’
Nearly two years on, the lido – shaped like Bath’s Royal Crescent – has fallen into a filthy state of disrepair, filled with stagnant water and leaves. It was only last month that the Trust finally published its report on Companies House, where they admitted it ‘might not be possible’ to ever reopen the pool.
Furious residents have described the project as a ‘scandalous waste of money’, with one declaring: ‘How can you possibly build a swimming pool that fails when it fills with water? That defies belief.’
But for those living in houses that back onto Cleveland Pools, this was something they say they knew would happen.
They spent years fighting to block the restoration, repeatedly warning how often the site floods and presenting alternatives including using it as an unheated wild swimming lido, as a park, or simply building a new lido in a less risky area.
Concerned neighbours say they were ‘shouted down’, ‘treated like NIMBYs’ and ‘fobbed off’ repeatedly, all so a ‘middle class Disneyland’ project could be pushed through.
Pictured is Cleveland Pools, Bath, on September 10 2023 – the first day it reopened to the public
But the historic pools were forced shut – and may never reopen again – after the site flooded (pictured). Residents say they warned the project ringleaders that this would happen but they were ‘fobbed off’
Cleveland Pools is pictured in 1910. The lido closed in 1984 and reopened in September 2023 – for just four months before the ‘floodproof’ plant room flooded
Cleveland Pools reopened for the first time in 40 years in September 2023 after the trustees launched a long campaign to raise money from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), local donors and Bath and North East Somerset Council (Banes).
Upon opening, they handed over the day-to-day operations to Fusion Lifestyle – a leading sports charity which manages 60 facilities across the UK, including London’s Brockwell Lido.
Today, questions remain over who will take the blame for such a failure – with five directors resigning from the Trust since it was forced shut in January 2024.
Many point the finger at chairman Paul Simons, who was also the city’s Director of Tourism when he led the botched Thermae Bath Spa restoration project which opened five years late and up to £30million over budget in 2006.
Similarly, the restoration of the Cleveland Pools was initially budgeted to cost around £4.2million, but more than doubled to £9.3million. The majority of the funding (£6.7million) – came from the HLF – a pot of money where charities can apply for £250,000-£10million for ‘heritage projects’.
Cleveland Pools first opened as a river-fed pool in 1815 and was used by the public for more than 160 years before closing in 1984. It was also for a short time used as a trout farm but in 2003, the council put it up for sale and it was added to the English Heritage Buildings at Risk Register.
In a bid to rescue the pools from ruin, the CPT was formed by locals Ann Dunlop, Janice Dreisbach and Roger Houghton in 2004. But more than 20 years on, they are back at square one.
When the Daily Mail visited Bath, locals laid bare the inside story of just how badly it went wrong.
One resident, who helped lead the fight against the project, told the Daily Mail: ‘The whole scheme was doomed from the start.’
The campaigner, who wished to remain anonymous, added: ‘It was never thought through. It was a vanity project, that’s all it was.
‘It is obscene the amount of money that was spent on it, for what? For nothing. But why throw good money after bad? They just need to suck it up that their scheme was inappropriate from the start and leave it.’
They added: ‘This was a middle class project for middle class people. It wasn’t for the community. It wasn’t for local, ordinary people.’
Tom Foulstone, who has lived in his house which backs onto the pools since 2007, told the Daily Mail: ‘It was always middle class Disneyland. We all said it was a ridiculous idea. It wasn’t really about nostalgia. The council needed to do something because it’s listed.’
The 53-year-old claimed the council didn’t want to invest millions on it themselves, so ended up in a ‘win, win’ situation where the CPT had a ‘plan and a pot of money’ from the HLF, which they were awarded in 2018.
‘They were coming under pressure to restore the pools and put money in. This was a win, win for them,’ he said.
During ‘awful’ planning meetings, locals say they quickly realised lottery-funded projects were only going to be supported if a business plan could be presented to show it would make money back.
One of the main concerns residents raised was that it was ‘inconceivable’ that such a small lido could ever bring in the number of visitors to generate the millions they had invested – and be sustainable to survive in the future.
Cleveland Pools is pictured in January 2024 after severe flooding saw the river level rise dramatically
Tom Foulstone (pictured), who has lived in his house which backs onto the pools since 2007, described the project as ‘middle class Disneyland’
Residents on Hampton Row (row of houses behind the Cleveland Pools) told the Daily Mail the inside story of the botched ‘vanity project’
Residents on Hampton Row, behind the pools, were severely disrupted throughout the construction. They described it as ‘hell’, with concrete trucks parked outside ‘days on end running diesel’.
One resident said: ‘It’s beyond belief how noisy it was when they were building it. It was excruciating. I was in tears at times. I couldn’t even go in my back garden. There was two summers of it.’
Forming an action group, the neighbours strongly opposed the plans, warning it was flood prone, there was a lack of parking and the fact the lido was far too small to cope with the number of visitors the Trust thought they could get in to make the money back.
Mr Foulstone added: ‘The CPT were hopeless really. We were treated like NIMBYs. Any concerns we had were fobbed off, we weren’t really listened to.
‘We did warn them that it was a difficult site. It was going to be very expensive, a lot more than the projected figures.’
He said the neighbours’ campaign group ‘absolutely’ saw the failure coming, adding: ‘We didn’t want it to happen. I mean, let’s be clear about that.’
He added: ‘I point my finger at Paul Simons squarely and at the Heritage Lottery Fund squarely as well. And the council as well. I think those three are the ones with all the information going in. They had been warned. We’d warned all of them.
‘I don’t think really they took us seriously enough… But also, I think a lack of common sense was in play. I think the money clouded judgement.’
Pictured is Cleveland Pools in 2022 when the final touches were being made ahead of its anticipated reopening
Mr Foulstone said they warned the pools would flood every three or four years, but their concerns were dismissed and they were told the Environment Agency had suggested it would only be every 20 years.
He added: ‘No one wants to say this is a really bad idea, guys, because they’re getting paid.’
With a lack of answers and accountability being taken, frustration has grown across the city.
David Ferris, who spent his childhood in the pools, said: ‘It is beggars belief that 20 months on after the flood, the report says they are still investigating the damage. They know what’s wrong.
‘They’ve not listed a trowel to fix anything.’
He added: ‘How can you possibly build a swimming pool that fails when it fills with water? That defies belief.’
A resident, who has lived in a property behind the pools for 11 years, said: ‘After all the years it took and the back and forth with the residents to get it opened and then it was only open for about three months, for it to be closed is just really disappointing.
‘No one is taking the blame and therefore putting up the money to put it right. It is criminal that it’s not being sorted. Someone needs to bang some heads together and find out who is to blame.’
‘You’ve done all the hard yards getting the place all built up. I don’t understand why it would be so expensive to put it right unless they realised there’s more work to be done to make it more flood proof.’
He questioned: ‘Whose fault is it? I guess it is the trustees that need to look at themselves, maybe they weren’t careful enough scrutinising their contracts.’
The local quipped that it was ‘ironic’ how the pool was ultimately destroyed by water.
Another local, who has lived in Bath all his life, said: ‘It’s a tragic story isn’t it? It’s a worthy cause in a historic part of Bath but questions have to be asked.
‘I think there needs to be a lot of transparency about where the money went and what it’s needed for now. Someone has to be transparent about it. All that money fundraised and what is there to show for it?’
The trustees are now working to finalise the investigation and costs of repairs and then work with the council and National Lottery Fund to secure more funding.
‘The risk that the cost to repair the pools and the plantroom will be substantial and beyond the resources available to the trust,’ the report stated.
‘There is therefore a risk that the pools cannot be repaired and reopened.
‘To mitigate against this risk the trust is exploring all potential avenues that would allow the pools to be repaired and reopened, including but not limited to legal recourse and external funding.’
As well as the £6.7million of funding from the HLF, investment into the controversial project came via Banes (£765,000), the public sector decarbonisation scheme (£557,230) and Historic England (£536,007). Public donations and grants totalled £438,448.
HLF have supplied another £250,000 for the investigation so far.
A spokesperson from The National Lottery Heritage Fund said: ‘Having given a significant grant to this historic lido which opened in 2023 we understand the frustration and disappointment faced by local people about the closure of Cleveland Pools and subsequent delays in reopening.
‘As part of our responsibility to ensure accountability, effectiveness and efficient use of public funds, we are meeting regularly with the Cleveland Pools Trust as they work towards a solution.’
Banes, Mr Simons and CPT did not respond to requests for comment.
In his last update to the public back in March, Mr Simons revealed: ‘In the period since the flood, extensive investigations have been conducted into the flooding incident, which caused serious damage to the pools’ operating plant and machinery in its plantroom.
‘There has also been some damage to the surrounding areas of the main pool and the focus of the ongoing technical investigations is on the nature and extent of damage to the pool structure itself and connecting pipework.
‘The Trust, with the assistance of its professional advisers, is looking at all its available options for recovering the cost of remedying the damage to allow the pools to reopen. Unfortunately, at this present time, the Trust is unable to put a timescale on this.’