Boss of Hathersage lido frustrated that popular pool can't reopen - but pubs can

Staff at the visitor attraction had been hoping to be given the go-ahead to reopen next week after months of being closed.

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On Tuesday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said pubs were among the venues which could reopen in England on July 4 – but swimming pools weren't mentioned.

With uncertainty still surrounding when the 80-year-old lido in Hathersage will be able to welcome swimmers again, Michael Wellington, manager of the pool, said: “We're frustrated.

“It doesn’t make any sense that you can go to a theme park, you can go to the pub, you can go to the beach – but you can’t go for a swim in an open-air swimming pool which is supervised.

“We’ve been taking a number of steps to make the lido Covid-safe, including enhanced cleaning regimes, implementing booking systems to avoid queues and looking at what sessions we can run instead of the more generic public swims.

“I’ve heard from so many people who desperately want to visit us for a swim – but the Government isn’t giving us any answers on when we can finally reopen.”

We’ve asked Derbyshire Dales’ Conservative MP Sarah Dines for a response.

Last year, around 25,000 people visited the pool.

Mr Wellington said now would have been peak season – and added that the current closure was proving to be ‘very damaging’ for the attraction financially.

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