Last time you’ll be able to swim at Fairfax Street

COVENTRY’S public swimming pool is set to close in just a few weeks as part of plans to open a new pool facility at the Alan Higgs Centre.

The 50m pool, located at the Coventry Sport and Leisure Centre on Fairfax Street, is set to close for the final time on Saturday, February 15.

It comes as the entire city centre sports complex is to close, paving way for the new sports facilities at the Allard Way site.

The new pool was due to open in late 2019, though this did not happen - for unspecified reasons.

It is thought that the delays at the Alan Higgs Centre have meant that the Fairfax Street venue remained open for longer than expected.

But now, a definite date for closing has been set - though an opening date for the new pool has not yet been made available.

Though new swimming facilities have opened fairly recently in Coventry, in the form of The Wave, the new pool at the Alan Higgs Centre, on Allard Way is being built to replace the existing pool at Coventry Sports and Leisure Centre.

In recent months, the Fairfax Street site has slowly been closed down, with many parts having already been de-comissioned.

It had long been believed that once the new pool is operational, the city centre leisure centrewill fully close. In January 2019, there was significant optimism the pool at the Alan Higgs Centrewas progressing well.

Millions of litres of water were added to ensure that the pool was watertight.

Once this phase of construction was complete, the pool’s movable floor was set to arrive from the Netherlands over the summer.

This was to be put together on site, before electrical and mechanical tests are carried out.

The movable floor can also go right up to deck level or down to the full depth of two metres, and can be split into two with a submersible boom that can create a 25-metre pool and a 23.5 metre pool.

A platform joining the first floor of the Alan Higgs Centre was also on the list, which would also accommodate a 500-seat viewing platform.

More recently, updates have been scarce, with a CV Life spokesperson saying earlier this month: “We cannot comment on the opening date as we are still in discussions with the contractors. As soon as we have confirmed details we will update customers.”