Winchester council leader excited by new lido plans

Cllr Martin Tod told the scrutiny committee on Monday September 7 that a lido would offer something new that would attract people into Winchester.

But the committee also heard that it was unclear if a lido might affect the numbers swimming at the Winchester Sport and Leisure Park at Bar End and affect the re-procurement of the operating contract due in 2036.

Stock image of a lido (Image: NQ)

Cllr Tod said: "This makes the city more attractive. If more people come to Winchester, they spend more money in cafes, support local businesses and parking in car parks. There is a real demand for outdoor swimming in Winchester. People are going to Shawford Lock, going to beaches in the New Forest, going to lidoes in other places. You can't get into Hilsea lido at the moment."

But former councillor Ian Tait and Conservative group leader Caroline Horrill raised the issue of the impact on the Bar End pool. Mr Tait said there was a "risk to the leisure centre if it loses customers to a lido. In a city of 50,000 people, how many swimming pools can be maintained?"

Cllr Horrill said: "The risk is to our own facility and to our own future finances as a council."

But Cllr Tod said the pools would appeal to different people. "I'm not hearing people going 'this lido is fantastic, it means I don't need to go to the leisure centre'. The lido is a new thing that people cannot do currently in Winchester and have to go to other places."

Under the current proposal the lido would be run by Sea Lanes on a 250-year lease. A report recommending the council support Sea Lanes initiative is set to be agreed on Wednesday September 9, confirming Sea Lanes as the preferred bidder for the site. If Sea Lanes is chosen as the preferred bidder it will have 12 months to draw up concrete plans and submit a planning application.

Sea Lanes has told the council they proposed to raise the level of the pool to reduce any flood risk and use crushed concrete from the demolished River Park Leisure Centre to build a plinth.

The committee heard there had been three bids, labelled A, B and C. Sea Lanes propose an outdoor swimming pool, cafe, sauna and free-to-use splash pool; B was for indoor padel courts and C was indoor raquets sports with a 120-room 'aparthotel'.

Bidder A, the lido, was considered the strongest overall with the best chance of being delivered.

Cllr Tod said there were no guarantees and that he had been surprised when McCarthy and Stone pulled out of redeveloping the former depot site at Bar End. But he said the council was taking no risk. Sea Lane was bearing all the risk and if the scheme didn't proceed then the land would return to the council.

A report to the scrutiny committee said one option would be to demolish the RPLC and grass over the site.