BBCThe site of Coventry’s Olympic-sized swimming pool that has been shut for five years is facing demolition.
The Coventry Sports and Leisure Centre has been empty since it closed in 2020, costing the council around £400,000 a year to mothball and secure.
Five years of marketing efforts have failed to attract a buyer for the Grade II-listed Fairfax Street site, known locally since it opened in the 1960s as “Cov Baths”.
Now, Coventry City Council has confirmed it will apply for permission to demolish the part of the building housing the 50-metre pool, while the extension known as “The Elephant”, because of its shape, will be unaffected.
The council’s decision comes after a petition was launched in July calling for “The Elephant” to re-open as a leisure centre that was signed by more than 700 people.
“We need to make a decision really about what we can do with [the pool],” O’Boyle said.
“If nobody wants to use it, if nobody wants to own it, if it’s no longer fit for purpose, then I think the time has come for us to make that decision about maybe bringing it down.”
He said he expected an application for demolition to be submitted “in the next few months”.
Despite the building being Grade II-listed, O’Boyle insists the council has “worked with Historic England” and “explored every single avenue of use”. Historic England has been approached for comment.
The council granted an exclusivity agreement to Ranier Developments to attract a developer after 2020’s closure.
In 2023, the firm told the BBC it had a buyer lined up and hoped to begin work in 2024 – but the council said the deal fell through because of the costs involved with converting the listed building.