Britain's first ever 35C heated lido is closed - despite locals paying £500,000
Britain's first ever "geothermal lido" - where seawater is supposed to be heated to 35C all year round - has shut for the winter despite undergoing a £1.8million upgrade three years ago.
It's said holes weren't drilled deep enough to access sufficiently warm water at Jubilee Pool in Penzance, Cornwall, which is meant to use underground thermals to heat seawater in an eco-friendly way across the year. It meant, despite the upgrade, the temperature was increased using electric heaters instead, which was "extremely expensive to run".
Now Jubilee Pool has shut until at least May, and residents in the Cornish town - who donated £540,000 to the pool's upgrade - have blasted the chaos. Matthew Underwood, 45, a marine engineer said: "It's the biggest waste of money you could possibly imagine. What's the point? The geothermal system doesn't work because they couldn't go deep enough. Last year they got given an award for it - how can you reward something that doesn't work? It's a failure."
Bosses at the lido have now admitted the geothermal system was "not quite as efficient as we hoped it would be". Residents believe it means the project, which is near Penzance Harbour, has now "failed" and has become "a big white elephant."
Alan Just, 73, said: "I think it's a failed project and they're trying to make the best of a bad job. Without heating most of the year it's a big white elephant. They never drilled down far enough. I'm not a swimmer but I can understand why people feel put out."
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Synchronised swimming teams often train and perform at the lido (Greg Martin / Cornwall Live)Pool bosses said Geothermal Energy Limited (GEL), which owns and operates the geothermal well next to the pool, had "originally planned to drill deeper for higher temperatures, however encountered a zone of very high water flow at 410m below the ground. Given the risks of drilling further and potential well collapse, their geothermal team decided to stop drilling."
Sea wall repairs and works to geothermal facilities to take place over winter, reports Mail Online. The town's mayor, though, said he was surprised the lido has had to close temporarily.
Nicola Murdoch, chief executive of the pool, told the publication: "The risk that comes with using innovative technologies and being the first of its kind in the country is it is not necessarily going to work as it might look like it is going to on paper. We need to top up some of the heat ourselves, but obviously the extreme hike in energy costs that's happened in the past 18 months are completely beyond our control.
'It's cost us more than we anticipated in terms of running costs so we needed to take a proactive approach to ensure our sustainability and the future of the pool. Combined with that inefficiency in the system, it is just extremely expensive to run."
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