after a judge ordered Derby City Council to fully repair Gayton

Swimming Pool.

The authority now faces an estimated repair bill of at least

£250,000 – plus damages and legal costs of more than

£320,000.

The Gayton Avenue pool was shut a year ago after the

Labour-led council said the £3m cost of replacing the building

around the pool was excessive.

Campaigners disagreed and, in December last year, Gayton

Community Association, which owns a building next to the pool,

took legal action against the council.

The association said its leasehold agreement with the

council specified the authority had to maintain the pool

building properly.

Yesterday at Birmingham County Court, Judge David Oliver

agreed and ordered the council to repair the pool and the

changing rooms.

Alan Willis and Chris Harrington, trustees of the community

association who took the legal action on their members' behalf,

said they were delighted with the judgement.

Mr Harrington said: “We are just looking forward to the day

we can open the pool and it can be a valuable facility for our

members and the community once again.”

Their solicitor, Jonathan Hill of JH Powell and Co, said it

was a stunning victory for the community.

He said: “This was a classic David versus Goliath story.

“The judge has delivered a clear message to the council that

they cannot simply walk away from their contractual

obligations.

“By standing back and deliberately allowing the swimming

pool and changing rooms to fall into such an appalling

condition and then forcing the community association to pursue

the matter all the way to a lengthy and expensive trial, the

council has nobody but themselves to blame for the sizeable

repair bill and legal bill that they have now been landed

with.”

The leader of Derby City Council, Hilary Jones, had

campaigned against the closure of the pool before her Liberal

Democrat group took control of the authority in May.

She said she blamed the previous Labour-led council for

costing the council thousands of pounds.

Mrs Jones estimated that in addition to the damages of

£9,500 and the association's legal fees of £250,000, the

council also had to pay their own legal fees of £70,000 and

said that did not include the officer time taken up with the

case.

“What it means, in other words, is that the figures we are

looking at for repairing the pool building is about the amount

of money we spent on the costs of the case.

“That is what we said would be the case all along when we

were in opposition and I would fairly and squarely lay the

blame on the previous Labour and Conservative council for

pursuing this case and continuing to do that despite escalating

costs and public opinion on the matter.

“I now look forward to getting the pool repaired and

reopened as soon as possible.”

The council must reach an agreement with the association

within three months or the dispute will be returned to

court.

Mr Harrington said he was hopeful an agreement could be

reached and work started as soon as possible so that the pool

could be reopened in between one and two years.