New lease means Chatteris pool is saved for people of town

A Fenland swimming pool described as a focal hub of the town has finally been saved after a ‘tough fight’ by its trustees.

The privately owned Empress Pool at Chatteris is where generations of residents have learned to swim for almost 60 years and thanks to a new 15 year lease it’s where the latest generation can learn too.

Heather Johnson, one of the pool’s three trustees, described the signing of the lease within the last week as ‘momentous’ and said she was absolutely delighted adding it was the culmination of a “tough fight” to negotiate a deal with the owners.

It means the pool is now safe for the next 15 years and part of the terms of the lease means the trustees also have the power to bring improvements to the facility.

Heather, who is a trustee alongside Julian Frost and Duncan Arnold, said: “The lease means we are now legally secure. If there are further bids to sell the pool we are legal tenants and can not be thrown out. It is the next best thing to actually owning the pool and I am absolutely delighted.”

In spring 2019 the Trustees were dealt a body blow when the owners announced they planned to sell the pool with a price tag of £500,000 and the potential to leave Chatteris - the only town in Fenland not to have a council-owned facility - without the vital asset.

There was little the Trustees could do because at that time they did not have a lease in place as it had expired.

A massive effort was launched to save the pool with town crier Lawrence Weetman spearheading calls for it to be declared an Asset of Community Value, which would have given Fenland planners extra powers to reject any plans to demolish it or for a change of use.

And at the same time gave campaigners a chance to fundraise in a bid to purchase the pool for the town.

In the end the pool failed to sell despite it going to auction more than once and the asking price being dropped to just £200,000.

That gave the Trustees the chance they needed to talk to the owners Rooke Builders and negotiate the new lease.

Heather thanked the Rooke family for their continued support - it was Percy Rooke who built the pool with his own money as a facility for the town.

She also explained she had contacted the main contributors to the fundraising effort and it had been agreed the cash would be spent on the legal work to get the lease secured.

Heather concluded: “People who grew up in Chatteris all learned to swim in the Empress Pool, everyone has their own memories of the pool, it really has been a focal hub for the town for a long time, and now that can continue.”