Council landed with huge legal bill as it is ordered to repair Gayton 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.