Campaigners are taking a long hard look at the commitments from councillors at last night’s Strategy and Resources Committee at Stroud District Council - and have expressed dismay that councillors did not heed their requests to include any firm timescales, despite a long history of inactivity and delay revealed at the meeting.
“We hope the council meant what it said when it expressed an intention to reopen the Lido this summer. However, we remain concerned by the lack of urgency and clear timescales — particularly as the debate last night revealed just how much the council has already run the clock down,” said Mark Sweeting of Save Our Lido Stroud. “A fully costed, expert-backed plan has already been submitted showing the pool could reopen by the school holidays for around £120,000 — but this now requires immediate action. Ultimately, the council will be judged by what it delivers in the coming weeks.”
Campaigners have also expressed their frustration on the reliance, once again, on reports submitted too late for real scrutiny.
“Councillors were talking about closing the lido a year ago - but claim to have only come to that conclusion in the light of health and safety reports, which - for the second time - were not revealed until it was too late for scrutiny or public questions. The reality is that very little has changed since they opened it last year, and they need to stop wasting time and get on with the fixes they’ve been talking about for years but not doing, the most important of which, could be done in time for the summer holidays if they get a move on,” said Julian Fiddes, an engineer who has been inside the pool in March, and is also a member of Save Our Lido Stroud.
The timeline and minutes submitted as an Appendix A to the Lido report, showed that the leadership was privately discussing a range of options all of which appear to have included closure of the Lido at least for 2026 if not longer, as early as 14 May 2025, and that the Chair of the Community Services and Licensing Committee was due to make a recommendation on these options within a week. Questioned at the meeting last night, the CSL Chair said that he did not remember being asked to make a recommendation as a result of these discussions, or what that recommendation had been.
Save Our Lido Stroud also released a fuller statement:
We will be looking very closely at what was said and agreed at the Strategy and Resource meeting, considering our next steps, and taking advice.
Whilst councillors on the S&R did express positive intent towards doing the work to get the lido open this summer, it is worrying that despite our urging, they refused to put any timescales on getting the work scheduled, quoted for, and completed.
We heard at the meeting how the council has already repeatedly run the clock down over the Lido, how they ignored the fact they had already authorised more than adequate spending on a whole overhaul, and instead waited until the 11th hour before announcing that they couldn’t afford the wildly over-specified plans that they had come up with instead. And we heard how this had taken place over a long period of time and out of the sight of any democratic scrutiny.
We are also unimpressed that the council published a report that it leaned on heavily to justify its actions, just a day before the meeting, meaning that there was no opportunity for the public to submit questions.
One month ago, the people of Stroud were told - out of the blue - that our beloved outdoor pool would close this summer, and remain closed indefinitely. Some councillors, in more than one party, were revealed in the papers to have been aware of this plan for nearly a year, though memories seem vague.
We hope that the significant shift in tone from councillors last night will be matched by a shift in pace. The council could be getting on with works, today. For all their warm words last night, we will judge the council by its actions.
The fact there is even a chink of light for the Lido, is thanks to the amazing energy shown by the community, and we urge people to keep on writing to their councillors - our website makes it very easy - and to demand the council stops delaying and follows the plan submitted by Save Our Lido Stroud.
Notes for editors
The opening plan from Save Our Lido Stroud shows a path to opening the Lido by the school holidays, for a spend of approximately £120,000. It was submitted to all councillors this week. It has been drawn up with extensive input from a chartered civil engineer and the leading lido engineer in the South West, who were able to inspect the Lido in March 2026 - and checked over and validated by health and safety, engineering and design experts. https://savestroudlido.org/lido-figures-briefing/
The meeting on Thursday 16th of April was of Strategy and Resources, a committee of senior councillors. https://savestroudlido.org/lido-figures-briefing/
The deadline for the papers to the committee was 9th April, and the deadline for the public to submit questions was noon that day. On 15th April, the day before the meeting, the council published a late paper that it relied on heavily to suggest that health and safety concerns made it difficult to commit to a timescale. This paper was labelled a “condition survey” but was conducted not by a surveyor or engineer but by a health and safety professional, yet it had no prioritisation of various issues that reports from as far back as 2018 show, have been known about for a long time but not previously judged an impediment to opening.
No engineering or survey evidence was presented to contradict SOLS’ engineers assessment that there was no significant evidence of deterioration over the winter and that the issues could and should be affordably addressed before the summer holidays.