Future of Canvey's new seafront paddling pool uncertain

Castle Point Council has said it is reviewing the future of the pool, known as the new pool, and located on the same stretch of the seafront, near the Concord Cafe.

The review is being carried out despite £250,000 being spent renovating it in the past two years.

Castle Point Council says it won’t be transferring ownership of the new pool to Canvey Town Council and will instead commission a review over what should be done with the new pool in future.

A spokesman said: “The borough council is to ask its community policy development group to re-examine the new sea water pool and come up with proposals.”

More than 1,000 residents teamed up with the Echo to pressure Castle Point Council into reversing its decision to demolish the much-loved old seaside pool because of fears it was dangerous. The borough council says it is now prepared to let the tourist attraction, which was built in the Thirties, stay open under the management of the town council.

The review of the new pool will please some campaigners who have warned for months it is the most dangerous of the two, but Lea Swann, who runs the Concord Cafe, said the £250,000 spent renovating the new one in 2008 would be wasted if it was closed.

She added: “Everyone knows they did a terrible job renovating the new pool, as they left it with a concrete base and dangerous rocky walls, which have become covered in slime and are really dangerous.

“I’m really pleased it looks like they’ve finally listened to residents and are going to leave the old pool alone.

“It has a safer, sandy base, was always far more popular with families, and I would much rather they kept that one if it was a choice between the two.

“However, it will be a massive waste of money if they remove the new pool after it had all that work done to it.”

Grandmother Mary Chalk, 63, from Enfield, North London broke her wrist in three places after slipping over on the seawall around the new pool.