Council splashes out £10.5m on Olympic-sized swimming pool

COVENTRY City Council has committed to splashing out £10.5m on a 50-metre swimming pool in the city.

The request for funding was approved at a full council meeting that also saw the city council grant consent, as landlord, for the development on the Alan Higgs Centre site.

The decision supports the council’s 10-year sports and aquatics strategies.

The project, which is still subject to planning permission, requires a further £6.4m of external funding in order for the Olympic-sized pool to be built.

The scheme is part of a sports village that has proven to be controversial in the city because of uncertainties surrounding Coventry City Football Club.

The club has its academy on the site, and the plans are for the pool to be built where an indoor football pitch currently is. It has had a fractious relationship with partners in the city in recent years that resulted in it playing its home matches in the 2013-14 season in Northampton.

Although it returned to the Ricoh Arena at the start of the 2014-15 season, shortly after the ground was bought by rugby union club Wasps, who relocated to the city.

Wasps now has plans to develop a £7m training centre next to the Alan Higgs Centre.