Although the COVID-19 pandemic has forced many Victorian swimming pools to close and not open up again, Cheshire West Voluntary Action (CWVA) member Chester City Baths has come out of these challenging times stronger than before, providing a chance for people of all ages to keep active.
Chester City Baths, which is located on Union Street near Grosvenor Park, has been at the heart of water sports in the area since 1900 and developed champion swimmers and water polo players over the years, as well as award-winning scuba diving and triathlon clubs. All of this to add to the 300 children on learn-to-swim schemes and 100 adult lunchtime swimmers.
Truly everyone is welcome to attend Chester City Baths, with regular visitors ranging from people aged eight to in their 90s. A number of memberships are available, such as annual, weekly and one-to-one packages.
More about Chester City Baths and the services on offer
While the pandemic has brought many hurdles for Chester City Baths, the people behind-the-scenes have worked tirelessly to make sure the building could reopen and welcome visitors again once it was safe to do so.
Jackie, who runs Chester City Baths, said: “We’ve got a number of different client groups who visit us regularly and we’re looking to broaden our community reach and so we work with other people.
“We’re working with CWVA to find potential new user groups and it’s a great opportunity for people to come together, meet others and keep active and healthy.
“I think some people underestimate the importance swimming can have on both your mental and physical wellbeing.
“We’re all really proud that we’ve been able to get through the pandemic when a lot of others in a similar position haven’t been able to.
“We have plenty of different plans in place to continue developing Chester City Baths so we can welcome more and more people.”
Since becoming a member of CWVA, Chester City Baths has received a range of support to help it come out the other side of the pandemic with a positive outlook.
Trevor, who is a volunteer Trustee, added: “We’ve had a lot of funding support from CWVA and that’s helped us generate the income we needed to get the building ready to welcome people back.
“I’ve made it my mission to look out for the funding opportunities advertised in the ebulletin each week to see what funding we can use and it’s been a massive help for us.
“There are a number of different projects we’ve been able to get involved with, such as the Holiday Activity Fund (HAF) and welcoming young people eligible for free school meals.”
Chester City Baths is also crowdfunding on the Cheshire West Crowd platform, which is being run by Cheshire West and Chester Council in partnership with Spacehive.
This crowdfunding effort is aiming to pay for the hand-crafted Victorian tiles needed to repair the Pacific Pool at Chester City Baths that was drained because of COVID-19 and caused damage to the floor of the pool.
96 per cent of the crowdfunding target has already been generated from more than 200 backers so Chester City Baths is calling for one final boost from residents, businesses, foundations and anyone else wanting to support the project.
