Banbury Lido 1.33

The Banbury Lido or Woodgreen Lido at Woodgreen Leisure Centre, Banbury, Oxfordshire, OX16 0AT, is an open air lido.The lido is 50 metres long and 18 metres wide, meeting Olympic standards. An “Aqua Zone” for young children includes a refurbished flume. The co-located leisure centre has an indoor sports hall, fitness gym and fitness studio. There is a grassy area on which to relax, sunbathe or have a picnic.HistoryOpened on 23 May 1939; £7,900 was raised for building the pool, buildings and a complete layout. With its capacity of 356,000 gallons, the new 1939 pool, together with its surrounding complex, involved 23 contractors and sub contractors, using firms such as the London Brick Company and regional bodies such as Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Shropshire Power Company.In 1999, to mark the 60th birthday of the Banbury Open Air Pool, a record turnout of nearly 1500 people visited over the Bank Holiday weekend.The lido was closed from 2002 after various problems including failure of the pool's lining. In 2005 a campaign was developed to save the pool led by the Open Air Pool Support Group. After rumours of planned permanent closure, a 10,000 name petition was collected to save the pool and a demo of an estimated 300 people outside the key council meeting resulted in postponing a decision and re-opening a debate. A month later a well attended public meeting faced a panel of councillors and leisure officers. The leader declared that the pool would be closed.In 2008 Cherwell District Council agreed a contract for refurbishment costing £1.4 million. Banbury Town Council contributes £50,000 a year to help with the running costs. Parkwood Community Leisure, which operates other Leisure Centres on behalf of Cherwell District Council, manages the Woodgreen Leisure Centre. In 2009 the lido reopened.