Beccy Cooper
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Dr Beccy Cooper (Worthing West) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Efford. I commend my hon. Friend the Member for Peterborough (Andrew Pakes) for his continued advocacy. As someone who lived down the road in Huntingdon for many years, I am delighted to hear that Peterborough lido is up and running again, which is fantastic. Lidos are not just leisure facilities; they are part of the fabric of our communities, as other hon. Members have so eloquently spoken about already.
In Worthing West, as my hon. Friend the Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tom Rutland) has already alluded to, our lido tells a similar story. It was originally built as a bandstand in 1925, and was later transformed into a pool. It has long been a defining feature of our seafront, and it is a place to which people feel deeply connected. For some time, it has stood empty. However, it has not been redundant, as it has played host to a fantastic series of film backdrops. The 2018 Laurel and Hardy biopic was set in our wonderful lido, and it can also be seen in “Wicked Little Letters” with Olivia Colman.
Even though we welcome our lido being a film backdrop, it is now changing into something much more proactive for our community, as there is real momentum behind bringing it back to life. It has been a local priority for me and my hon. Friend the Member for East Worthing and Shoreham, and we have been working with partners, including Worthing borough council, Worthing Heritage, businesses and community groups, to help drive that forward.
Jayne Kirkham (Truro and Falmouth) (Lab/Co-op)
I cannot let a debate on swimming pools go without mentioning Falmouth, which is on a peninsula with sea on three sides. The children of Falmouth have lost the swimming pool, as it was shut by the Conservative council in 2022. We have been campaigning rigorously, including with a petition to this House, to try to reopen it. In the meantime, community organisations, Falmouth town council and Pendennis Leisure have taken on the site to try to keep it running. I pay tribute to those organisations.
Dr Cooper
Excellent. I thank my hon. Friend, who has nicely paid tribute to them. Well done.
What has been so striking about the work we are doing is the level of local energy in our community. People care deeply about these spaces, and they want to see them thriving again. We have an opportunity to do that in a way that reflects who we are now as a town, by creating a space that works for the future—one that can bring people together and host community life, and that makes the most of its unique position on the seafront. In Worthing, the sea is not just a backdrop. It is part of our identity, which gives us the chance to think a little differently about how people experience this space and the role it can play in everyday life.
At this point, I give credit to my hon. Friend the Member for East Worthing and Shoreham. The lido is right on the seafront, and being on the channel, as Members can imagine, the structure is not terribly stable. Worthing borough council is putting in a lot of money, and Historic England is looking to shore it up so that it does not fall into the sea. Although I am not an engineer, the prospect of putting a swimming pool back into that structure looks quite unlikely. My mighty hon. Friend is undeterred. He says that we must have some sort of sea pool, so we are looking into the possibility of having a sea pool near the lido structure. We are also looking at the possibility of green energy generation. What started out as a community project is blossoming into something quite fantastic for Worthing. It is in its early days, but we are very excited.
As a public health doctor, I can see real value in these spaces, and many Members have mentioned public health already. Access to healthy outdoor spaces should not be a luxury; everyone should benefit from them, regardless of where they live or what their circumstances are.
I conclude by inviting all hon. Members to come to Worthing to see the lido in its current art deco glory, and I ask the Minister to consider the options for Government contributions to our lido. There will be mighty funding contributions, and I ask the Government to contribute in whatever way possible to our community “ DIY SOS” project.