Brixton lido may close down

The managers of an outdoor swimming pool nicknamed Brixton Beach fear they may be forced to close over financial crisis.

Paddy Castledine and Casey McGlue say Lambeth council refused them a £30,000-a-year subsidy when it granted them a two-year extension on their lease of Brockwell Lido last year.

The pair, who used to work for the council, were granted a seven-year lease to bring the Thirties heated pool, which closed in 1990, back into use in 1994. But they say they are struggling to meet the annual £250,000 running costs without the subsidy and because poor weather earlier this summer reduced attendance figures. It attracts up to 4,000 on hot days

Mr Castledine says: "If the council does not come up with something [in the next week or so], it can have the keys back." He said he had been unable to attract proper funding because he and Mr McGlue were granted only a two-year extension to their lease, and predicted that the former Labour council, now a Liberal Democrat and Tory coalition, would struggle to find alternative backers for the pool in Brockwell Park.

Lambeth, which has invited "expressions of interest" from contractors on an upgrade of the pool, said it would do "everything possible" to ensure the pool remained open and recently invested £120,000 to ensure it was safe.