Chatteris Empress Pool is up for sale at £500,000
A Fenland town looks set to lose its swimming pool after the building's owners have put it up for sale with a price tag of £500,000.
The trust run, privately owned Empress Swimming Pool in Chatteris has been put on the market with Exclusive Property Sales.
Town and district Councillor Florence Newell, who has campaigned for decades to get a public pool for Chatteris, described the move as "deeply upsetting" and said it would leave youngsters in the town without a vital facility.
The town council did put aside money for a pool to be sited on the Cromwell Community College site when allotment land was sold off in the 1990s. However, a bitter disagreement with the district council over running costs meant the project never came to fruition.
Speaking this morning Coun Newell said: "I was told about this yesterday, and I was shocked. This is deeply upsetting and will mean the town could lose its only swimming pool. Unfortunately I have been unable to discuss this with the town clerk at the moment, but I can say for certain we don't have £500,000 to buy it.
"There may be some grant funding available and there may be something we can do as a community, but until we discuss it at the town council it is hard to know what we can do about it.
"It is the whole site that is being sold, so it may even be possible that the new owners allow the pool to continue to run."
The Empress Swimming Pool is open daily from 6am to 10pm with people paying a membership to use it. It is also home to the successful Kingfishers Swimming Club, which trains at the pool and runs swimming lessons for its dozens of members.
Should the buildings in Park Road be sold then Exclusive Property Uk say the new owners could be able to give the Empress Pool trustees six months to vacate the building.
Their website says: "Leisure facility for sale: Currently known as Empress Swimming Pool and buildings with basement. A unique building currently being used as a local swimming pool in Chatteris, Cambridgeshire. Gross floor area approx. 6500 Sq Ft - Total area approx. 0.235 acres.
"Current tenancy rolling over - tenants could be given six months to vacate."