MOSELEY ROAD BATHS, BALSALL HEATH, BIRMINGHAM

A CAMPAIGN group started by local people has been involved with the baths since 2006 when the pool was first under threat of closure and increasingly run down.

Ten years later, plans to start repairs fell through as the council did not have the funds. This galvanised the community into making plans to take over the running of the Grade II-listed building, something they began doing in April 2018.

“It was empowering and terrifying,” says Vivienne Harrison, 49, from Highgate, Birmingham, who is a volunteer and trustee of the Charitable Incorporated Organisation that now runs the baths. “We hit the ground running, introducing training for volunteers.

So far over 40 volunteers have become lifeguards or swimming teachers.”

Vivienne herself even took a course to learn how to operate the elderly steam boilers that keep the pool heated.

The baths serve a deprived, diverse area with high levels of ill health, including heart disease and diabetes.

Vivienne has debilitating fibromyalgia but a regular swim helps her cope.

“Swimming is the most inclusive exercise,” she says. “Without a local pool, people can’t do the exercise they need to for their health, meaning increased cost to the NHS.”

Extra sessions have been added for disabled people and families, as well as women-only swims with a female lifeguard – all of which have proved popular.

Over last summer children could swim for £1 and the baths are keen to offer this rate again this year.

Although Birmingham City council contributed £100,000 for maintenance costs for the year and own the freehold, the CIO is investing too.

They are currently installing a pool cover, to be put in place when the baths are not in use, to reduce water and heating costs. Future aspirations include restoring the historic building, parts of which cannot be accessed by the public due to their disrepair.

Less than a year after the pool became community-led, Vivienne feels it has already generated a can-do spirit in the area.

She says: “At the Olympics and Commonwealth Games we want to win medals, but we need local pools for this.

“Maybe the next gold medallist is swimming at Moseley Road Baths with their school right now.”

‘Maybe next gold winner swims here’