Victorian swimming pools: Going down the drain?

Public swimming pools are a threatened species. By the Government's own estimate, swimming pools owned by local authorities need maintenance costing something like £500 million. Local authorities' preferred method of dealing with this problem is to close them. The London Pools Campaign tells us that, every year, one London swimming pool closes and is not replaced. It seems odd that, in the lead up to the Olympics, local swimming pool provision is shrinking. The real problem is that most local authorities are hopeless at maintaining their buildings, and pools are no exception. Routine maintenance is neglected until the state of a building is such that only a massive capital project will save it.