Save Stroud Lido

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In a shock announcement, Stroud District Council (SDC) has proposed closing the much-loved Stroud Lido.

The story so far

  • 6am on Thursday 12 March 2026 – SDC announces a proposal not to open the Lido in summer 2026.
    • The timing of the announcement gave the public just 6 hours to submit questions to the committee.
    • The proposal says the cost of upgrade has been estimated at around £5 million, which the council cannot afford.
    • The proposal does not set forward an option to repair the Lido.
  • Over the next week:
    • Local residents set up a petition asking SDC for more transparency over the proposals, which gains thousands of signatures.
    • Local residents question the proposals, pointing out:
      • Essential repair works were estimated at just £800k in 2023, and money budgeted for those repairs.
      • It is unclear why repairs have not been done, or why repair proposals not put forward now.
      • More information is needed, including costs and timescales for repair as well as upgrade.
  • Thursday 19 March 2026 – SDC holds the first of three meetings to vote on the proposal (view on YouTube).
    • New information is presented in this meeting, including a claim that the Lido is now unsafe.
    • Councillors vote by 10 votes to 2 to pass the decision at this first meeting – but also agree to commission an urgent survey to estimate the cost of repairs.

What happens now

We now need SDC to put all the options on the table.

The next dates where we can influence what happens are:

  1. SDC Strategy & Resources Committee on Thursday 16 April – Ebley Mill at 7pm (agenda)
  2. SDC full council vote on Thursday 30th April – Ebley Mill at 7pm.

See how you can take action to make your concerns known to your councillor.

Questions we need answers to

The key questions we need answers to are:

  • What is the cost of the essential maintenance work – as opposed to the upgrade options presented on 19 March?
  • How quickly could this be undertaken?
  • How long would this maintenance work be expected to last before a full upgrade is needed?

Please ask your councillor to get the answers.