Morecambe's only indoor community pool is all set to reopen its doors for public swimming sessions.
The Bay Leadership Academy pool, formerly the Heysham Community Swimming Pool, will have a public reopening on Tuesday July 12.
The pool, based at the Bay Leadership Academy (formerly Heysham High School) on Osborne Road in Morecambe, will then be available for adults to use for swimming sessions, followed by the reintroduction of family sessions shortly afterwards.
The pool reopened for school swimming in March following a period of closure during the Covid pandemic.
Beyond Radio spoke to Steven Houghton, Bay Leadership Academy school business manager, and Anthony Boyd, venue manager, to find out more about future plans for the pool.
The pool is currently being used by schools on Wednesdays and Fridays, and the plan is for a two-phase reopening for public swimming.
"We're going to go for some adult-only evening sessions to begin with, from 7pm to 9pm, just to make sure that we are comfortable with how that is going to operate," said Mr Boyd.
"Then we're going to look at maybe some kind of family and community general openings, more towards the weekend."
Mr Houghton said: "The hope is that in the years to come that it will be a central hub for the community.
"As a school we are very interested to introduce swimming into the curriculum as well.
"Hopefully we might see the next Tom Daley, who knows?"
The pool was previously owned by Lancashire County Council and operated by Lancaster City Council.
There were fears in 2016 that the pool might close permanently due to funding cuts, but then the school took it over and the pool was reopened in 2019 following a refurbishment, before closing due to the Covid pandemic in 2020.
Mr Houghton said: "It's been a priority, getting this off the ground.
"It was never on the table to get rid of it. I know there were some fears and concerns at that point because pools are expensive to run.
"But what we wouldn't want to do, is impair the community's capacity to have access to those facilities."
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