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Save Stroud Lido

Save Stroud Lido

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SAVE OUR SUMMER!

SAVE STROUD LIDO

Stroud Lido is under threat. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Ask your councillor to stop the rush to close the lido.

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🗞️Nice article in this week’s Stroud News and Jour 🗞️Nice article in this week’s Stroud News and Journal about the sustainable, spring-fed Lido

💦Whilst we await updates from @strouddistrictcouncil as to progress on getting essential summer re-opening works commissioned and underway, do keep making your voices heard! Letters to councillors, letters to the local papers (also @stroudtimes )- it all shows how much we care 💦
💦Outside the council chamber on Thursday… just a f 💦Outside the council chamber on Thursday… just a few of the placards (and we were v happy to see the lobsters) 🦞 Keep it up folks, the council is certainly aware that we’re paying close attention! 💦 They’ve said they’re going to try and get it open this summer and they’ve acknowledged they’ve got the money so… let’s go! #savestroudlido
😍Here’s Cllr Tom Langham unveiling the foundation 😍Here’s Cllr Tom Langham unveiling the foundation stone at the opening of Stroud’s outdoor pool, back in 1937 - the stone is still on view outside. 

✊Cllr Langham was the Chair of the Council when Stroud finally - after many years of fighting for it - got its outdoor pool - and his great-grandchildren and great- great- grandchildren have been turning up outside Ebley Mill with the SOLS supporters to ask the council to #savestroudlido, and giving SOLS fantastic support, thank you @joeiselvis and crew! #savestroudlido
✊Such an honour to carry our banner yesterday in S ✊Such an honour to carry our banner yesterday in Stroud’s May Day march - a celebration of what we can achieve when we come together as ordinary people. 

From better living conditions, to the outdoor pools that are foremothers and forefathers built so that we too could have nice things. 

💦 And such a great reception walking around Stroud - lots of “oh yes, Lido!” and “Lido! Preach!” and similar, as people clocked our banner. 

Thank you Stroud! Let’s keep pushing, it’s only thanks to the amazing community effort that there is now a chance that the outdoor pools *will* stay open!
Marching the Save Our Lido banner through Stroud o Marching the Save Our Lido banner through Stroud on May Day, you always manage to get some excellent support - and fortunately we were filming live for Instagram
Caroline Molloy from Save Our Lido Stroud speaking Caroline Molloy from Save Our Lido Stroud speaking about the Lido at the May Day rally in Stroud
Watch SOLS member Caroline Molloy asking public qu Watch SOLS member Caroline Molloy asking public questions at the full council meeting at Ebley Mill on Thursday. The key question will the pool be open this summer? The council’s answer? “Hopefully”. They have promised regular updates. We need to keep a v close eye!
💦💦💦 calling all Lido lovers! This is the big one f 💦💦💦 calling all Lido lovers! This is the big one folks - full council. 

🗓️Thursday 30 April, 6.30 - tomorrow 

The Lido will be on the agenda - we will make sure of it!

🦞🎶And we have a few things up our sleeve - but we need your support!

💦Join us! Help us show the council how much the outdoor pool matters to us!

🗓️Thursday 30 April, 6.30 - tomorrow - you can stay as long or as short as you like (the meeting itself is from 7 onwards and the lido is likely to come up early on)
📍Ebley Mill

See you there! 

And tell us below why the lido matters to you - we’d love to be tagged in on any videos or photos you take, too. #savestroudlido
Three generations of love for Stroud’s outdoor poo Three generations of love for Stroud’s outdoor pool and three more voices added to the community-wide call to @strouddistrictcouncil to #saveoursummer #openthepoolalready #letstroudswim
“it’s part of Stroud, it’s part of Stroud’s herita “it’s part of Stroud, it’s part of Stroud’s heritage, it’s always been there, it’s part of our lives”

💦Great segment from @bbcglos (& is that @monobrow73 I hear at the beginning?) from last night’s public meeting. Lots of voices from across Stroud and beyond talking about why it’s so vital to them and their families that the Lido stays open this summer. 

Thanks to the massive public outcry that greeted their closure announcement, stroud district council are now starting to say they are trying to get the Lido open this summer and beyond, after all - we need to make sure they keep us maximally informed, so that we can keep them on track, as a community, because timescales are very tight.

#savestroudlido
There’s a chink of light for Stroud’s Lido – but w There’s a chink of light for Stroud’s Lido - but will the district council move fast enough to protect it & open it for this summer and beyond?
There’s a chink of light over the Stroud’s outdoor There’s a chink of light over the Stroud’s outdoor pool - but will the district council move fast enough to protect the pool and get it open this summer and beyond?

Listen to SOLS campaigner Caroline Molloy on BBC Gloucestershire this morning (part 2 to follow) 

And come to the meeting at 6pm tonight at St Lawrence if you can - there may be availability on the door, though last time we checked there weren’t many advance tickets left.
Not many seats left – reserve yours now! 6pm Monda Not many seats left - reserve yours now! 6pm Monday St Lawrence Church, Stroud https://www.eventbrite.com/e/town-meeting-the-future-of-stratford-park-lido-tickets-1985913505755
Elvis has entered the lido debate! We entreat Str Elvis has entered the lido debate!

We entreat Stroud District Council to reopen the Lido and #saveoursummer - and we hope they’ll be joining Elvis in the water, in their swimming trunks of many colours to match his gold trunks, when they do!

#savestroudlido #savestroudsoutdoorpool #elvislives
Stroud Lido has been a safe place for people to ga Stroud Lido has been a safe place for people to gather for generations, according to this Stroud woman whose family have been using it since 1962. Let’s keep it that way for generations to come!

#savestroudlido #savestroudoutdoorpool #saveoursummer #letstroudswim
📸 Photo call – 6.30pm today, Ebley Mill, outside a 📸 Photo call - 6.30pm today, Ebley Mill, outside a crunch council meeting about the Lido - come as you are, come in fancy dress, bring your placards (though placards will need to be left outside if you come inside at 7pm to hear us ask our pre-submitted questions & to see what happens next).

We (Save Our Lido Stroud) say:

⏱️ Having run the clock down, the council must now urgently get on with the straightforward works needed to get the pool open. 

💦Yesterday SDC published a health and safety report (which they have incorrectly labelled a “conditions survey”). 

💦They opened the pool last season with these exact same concerns.

💦 We have already factored addressing these issues into our report and we stand by our figures that the pool could open safely this summer, and with a fraction of the money already set aside.

💦The council must stop their delaying tactics in pursuit of a shiny dream that will never materialise, get real, and get to work, using a fraction (c £120,000) of the roughly £1 million they already agreed to spend on the Lido - but which they never spent.

😱The council has argued that £5m is the minimum needed to do essential works but these figures include a number of expensive options including a top of the range stainless steel tank and making the pool shallow and heated.

👍 Save Our Lido Stroud have submitted an alternative plan, enabling the pool to be fit for summer and a basis to build on, costed at £120,000, produced with extensive input from civil engineers and leading lido experts who have inspected the pool in the last month.

🧐Will Stroud District Council listen? Come along and find out. 

#savestroudlido
💦 NEW: How we get Stroud’s Lido this summer – a br 💦 NEW: How we get Stroud’s Lido this summer - a briefing. https://savestroudlido.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Lido-briefing-PDF-version.pdf

💦 Summary: The lido can open this summer
Stroud District Council says it needs £5.1 million. An independent engineer says under £120,000.

💦 On Thursday 16 April, a committee of senior councillors will vote on the future of Stratford Park Lido. The council’s papers put the cost of repairs at £5.1 million for “essential maintenance”.

💦 However, this figure includes adding heating, replacing the lining with an expensive stainless steel system, making the pool shallow throughout, and other unnecessary works. This isn’t work anyone asked for - mostly, it’s not what they have at Cheltenham - and we don’t need it, certainly not to open this summer. 

💦 An independent civil engineer working with SOLS, backed by contractor quotes, puts the cost of a comprehensive pre-season programme of works at under £120,000, ensuring it stays open for this summer - and beyond, with the works a good foundation for future work. 

💦 It’s important the lido stays open, to support the community and prevent further physical deterioration - and to enable us to come together to do the non-essential work to restore it to former glories, over the next few off-seasons.

We can do it, safely and affordably. Please help us get the council back on track and open the lido this year.
🚨We urgently need your voice to show what Stroud L 🚨We urgently need your voice to show what Stroud Lido means to our community – please take our survey!

💦 It takes just five minutes, and includes four quick questions about how closure would affect you. If you like, you can also share a short testimonial, which we may feature in the campaign.

Link in bio! https://savestroudlido.org/take-our-survey/
🚨Join us at Ebley Mill, Stroud, 6.30 for 7pm this 🚨Join us at Ebley Mill, Stroud, 6.30 for 7pm this Thursday - this is a crunch meeting of all the most senior district councillors, and the Lido is the first item on the agenda.

💦Gather outside from 6.30pm - bring placards, wear fancy dress, whatever you feel! 🫧

🤓Then come inside and listen, if you like. Make sure councillors understand we are paying close attention!

🧐We’ve asked tough questions - will they answer them?

💦We’ve given them a repair plan to get the Lido fit for the summer, and beyond - will they listen?

💰They’ve set aside plenty of money - will they release some of it, and save our swim?

#savestroudlido #saveourswim #saveoursummer #savestroudoutdoorpool
🤨 How on earth do you make a Lido refurb go from 🤨 How on earth do you make a Lido refurb go from

£0.8 million (money we do have) 

to £5 million (money we don’t have)?

😳 Buried in the reports for this coming Thursday’s important decision making meeting, is a big part of the answer….

By quietly hiring consultants who then quietly recommend buying one of the highest end, most luxury “pool liner” solutions in the world! 😱

Rather than keeping a concrete pool (which is what most Lidos have, including Cheltenham) they ditched that idea and quietly came up with a plan to reline the whole thing in (expensive) stainless steel.

Which they then told us we couldn’t afford...so the pool had to close.

Why would you do this? 

And why did councillors not push back and ask for the simpler, more down to earth solution, of simply maintaining the concrete, that Stroud could actually afford?

We will be asking these questions directly at a crunch meeting on Thursday.

🗓️ 16th April, 7pm
📍 Ebley Mill

Come join us - the meeting is open to the public - and there will be many tough questions.

Come and show your support as we say to, Stroud District Council, get real, and get the outdoor pool ready for summer.
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What’s going on

Not sure what the decision is about? Find out more here.

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What you can do

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Little girl in the lido, in a pink doughnut inflatable. Photo by Simon Pizzey, Stroud News and Journal.

And there’s more…

Come to an event

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Get resources

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Read the mythbuster

New! Our mythbuster helps you tell fact from myth about the lido

ASK STROUD DISTRICT COUNCIl TO THINK AGAIN

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2026 Save Our Lido