CAMPAIGNERS calling for the hydrotherapy pool in St Austell to be reopened have reacted with horror to the news that the facility has been demolished. 

The Friends of Community Hydrotherapy Group had been pushing for the pool at the town’s leisure to start operating again. 

In the summer, a petition with hundreds of signatures was gathered after Cornwall Council announced it would not support plans to reopen the facility and would instead allow leisure centre operators GLL to use the space at the centre for something else. 

The money for the building of the hydrotherapy pool, which benefited people with a range of health issues, had come in part from the community. After operating for many years from the late-1980s, the pool had closed during the coronavirus pandemic and had not subsequently reopened. 

Calls in recent times for the pool to operate once more have now come to nothing. 

On Monday, October 5, it was announced that an expansion of the leisure centre’s health and wellbeing facilities was well under way. 

The announcement said that the development would replace the hydrotherapy pool that had now been demolished and that the move comes in response to increased demand for memberships and exercise on referral.  

Cornwall councillor Julian German, who supported the campaign to get the hydrotherapy pool reopened, said the decision to demolish the facility was “an act of civic vandalism”. 

He said: “We are absolutely distraught that this fantastic facility will no longer be able to benefit people that really need it. When it was fully open, it benefitted hundreds of people making a real positive difference.” 

The campaign to get a publicly-accessible hydrotherapy pool in Cornwall will continue, however, with the friends group exploring alternative options.  

Meanwhile, work on the new facilities at the leisure centre is expected to be completed by the end of the year.