Dear Editor,
Sadly, Labour-run Cheshire East Council have NOT said they will preserve the Art Deco front of the building.
Flag Lane Baths is a rare example in the UK of an Art Deco swimming pool but Cheshire East have only said they will ‘press’ for the façade of the former baths to be kept as part of any development.
That is not good enough.
Crewe First says that the entire building is of architectural and historical interest and should be listed and preserved and adapted for a new use.
Crewe has already lost far too much of its short history to the bulldozer and no more should be lost.
Charity ‘Always Ahead’ had hoped to transform the Art Deco public swimming baths into a community centre with an auditorium, a community grocery club, a heritage gallery, workspaces, outdoor sports area, and a restaurant.
The Crewe Corporation Public Swimming Baths or Flag Lane Baths were opened in November 1937 and built at a cost of £34,090.
The Baths were closed in 2016 and Always Ahead’s plans to revitalise it had secured Government support to the tune of £3.9m from the Towns Fund.
Subsequently, planning permission for the revamp was approved in 2022.
Since then, however, the project has suffered a huge cost increase of £2 MILLION, even before the building work had begun.
Now, the unelected Crewe Town Board, who are in charge of the Towns Fund schemes in Crewe, has pulled its support for the project.
It is now proposed that the site be used to provide a new ‘Alternative Provision School’, whatever that means ?????
Yours faithfully,
Cllr Brian Silvester
Leader
Crewe First
Recent Comments