Stratford Park Lido reopens: opening times and the £476k fix

Stratford Park Lido is open to swimmers again. The 1937 outdoor pool on Stratford Road reopened on Saturday 15 August, the first day on the timetable published by Stroud District Council’s leisure service, Active Lifestyles, and it will run daily lane and public swimming sessions for the rest of the season. Five months ago the council said the pool could not open at all this year. (Stroud District Council update, 10 August 2026; Active Lifestyles, Stratford Park Lido)

The turnaround rests on a £476,000 repair programme approved unanimously by councillors on 3 June, and on a distinction the council drew between the work needed to open the pool safely for this summer and next, and the estimated £5 million of works it had said in March were needed to secure the site long term. (Stroud District Council, 5 June 2026; Stroud District Council, 12 March 2026)

Opening times and how to book

Active Lifestyles has published the following 2026 timetable, which it says will be reviewed regularly and may change with usage and weather. The baby pool is open during public swimming sessions, with extra baby pool bookings on Fridays in August from 10am to 12pm. (Active Lifestyles)

Sessions can be booked through the Active Lifestyles online booking system or app; the council’s project report of 6 August said walk-in swims would be available for all sessions. Neither the council nor Active Lifestyles has published admission prices on the lido page at the time of writing, so check the booking system or ring 01453 766771 before you go. The lido is a cold-water pool: it was heated before the war but has not been since. Free parking is at the front of Active Lifestyles Stroud, and the council said overflow parking would be available at the adjacent college and at Tesco on Stratford Road during the busy Friday events in August. (Council project update, 6 August 2026 (PDF); Active Lifestyles; Council update, 10 August)

From “cannot open this year” to a reopening date

The council announced on 12 March that “new assessments confirm that £5million of essential works are required before the much-loved 89-year-old facility can reopen”, that the work would all need doing together rather than in phases, and that “sadly, this means it cannot open for the summer season this year”. Councillor Martin Brown, chair of the Community Services and Licensing Committee, said the council “would gladly borrow the £5million needed if it were financially viable”, but that “not enough people use the Lido each summer to repay a loan of that size”, and asked residents, charities and partners to help with fundraising. (Stroud District Council, 12 March 2026)

A week later, after the committee met on 19 March, council leader Chloe Turner said the council had published a risk assessment and a video showing “the bottom of the main pool coming away in large chunks”, that “this is no longer about repairs”, and that more than 180 offers of help had come in from individuals and organisations. (Statement from the council leader, 20 March 2026)

An independent condition survey, published on 14 April, identified what the council called “serious safety issues” with the diving board, pool surrounds and pipework, and on 16 April the Strategy and Resources Committee decided the lido must stay closed while further surveys, including underground structural checks, were carried out. That decision came with a first commitment: if the essential repairs came in under the £900,000 of capital borrowing councillors had already earmarked for the lido, work would begin immediately. (Statement, 17 April 2026; council lido page)

By 22 May the council was talking about opening “this summer” and called an extraordinary Strategy and Resources meeting for 3 June to approve spending beyond the £200,000 initially allocated. That meeting, with members from all four political groups, unanimously agreed a further £276,000, taking the project to £476,000 of revenue funding, separate from the proposed £900,000 capital allocation for longer-term improvements. The council said then that reopening was “not guaranteed”, targeted 14 August with a possible earlier date of 29 July, and warned that delivery depended on no new problems being found during the works. (Stroud District Council, 22 May 2026; 5 June 2026)

What the £476,000 bought

The council’s fortnightly project reports, published on its lido page from 30 April, list the works. The final report, dated 6 August, records the following milestones complete: shot and sand blasting of the concrete pool shell (12 June); diamond-cut core samples from the pool base and walls; repairs to the pool shell (17 July); the pool edge coping stones lifted and reset (1 July); a fibreglass coating applied to a 10-metre area from each shallow end (12 July); repairs to walls within the compound showing movement (7 August); the compound’s paving relevelled; seven pool steps replaced and all inlet and outlet covers replaced (27 July); the pool shell painted with a non-slip epoxy finish including lane markings (31 July); a single circulation pump replaced and the straining box refurbished (31 July); and remedial work to the fountain aerator. Replacement of failed glazing in the changing village was scheduled for 8 August, and temporary fall protection to the compound’s low walls for 12 August. (Council project update, 6 August 2026 (PDF))

The same report said the pool was being filled and chlorinated, legionella testing was complete, microbiological testing of the pool water was scheduled for 10 August, and opening remained “subject to clear water testing results and final health and safety inspection”. It also noted that the opening date had moved from 14 to 15 August on the contractor’s timeline, that lifeguard recruitment was ongoing with “no impact predicted”, and that an entrance mural, which the report says was commissioned by SOLS, was nearing completion. (Council project update, 6 August 2026 (PDF))

What has not been decided

The £476,000 was described by the council as covering “short-term repairs, enabling works and essential surveys” to open the lido for summer 2026 and operate it in 2027, “while longer-term options for the site continue to be developed”. The surveys funded through the project are meant to inform decisions on the long-term investment needed. A working group of councillors, officers and community representatives is looking at “sustainable long term options”, including potential asset transfer and alternative ownership models, and the council has said that if no one comes forward the site would be “protected from further deterioration until the new Unitary Authority decides on next steps”. Stroud District Council itself is abolished on 1 April 2028. (Stroud District Council, 5 June 2026; council lido page; 12 March 2026)

The pool itself

Stroud Urban District Council commissioned the lido, which was built and opened in 1937 by the council’s engineer and surveyor F S Cutler at a cost of around £20,000. It has a 55 yard by 18 yard pool fed by spring water, a parabolic diving board, an art deco fountain and changing rooms, and sits next to Active Lifestyles Stroud, the leisure centre built in the 1970s. In a normal year it opens for 13 weeks over the summer. (Active Lifestyles; Stroud District Council, Stratford Park)

What it means for you

• It is open now, daily. Lane swimming from 7am on Tuesdays and Thursdays, public swimming from 11am every day, evening lanes until 7.15pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Book online to be sure of a place; walk-ins were promised for every session.
• The last Friday event is 28 August. The council’s free Big Summer Picnic and Play in the Park days at Stratford Park run 10am to 4pm on Fridays 21 and 28 August, so the park and its car park will be busiest then. (Stroud District Council, 3 August 2026)
• This is a two-season fix, not the long-term answer. The council has been explicit that £476,000 keeps the lido running in 2026 and 2027; the £5 million estimate for a full restoration and the question of who owns and funds the pool after April 2028 are still open. The council’s fortnightly updates and the survey reports are on its lido page, and it invites offers of help through the sign-up form linked there.

For more on the district’s parks and days out, see things to do in Stroud, and for the council changes ahead, our report on the move to a single Gloucestershire Council.