 About Us
The story of the pool at Chipping Norton
illustrates the town's extraordinary community spirit. In
1932, before the days of a national fire service, Chipping
Norton founded a charity and raised £1,000 for its own
fire engine.
After the war the government set up a national network of
county and metropolitan brigades. All over the country town
councils  handed
over their engines to the new brigades – but not Chipping
Norton. Our town council said it didn’t own the engine
– it belonged to the charity and if the government wanted
it they would have to pay for it!
The Fire Brigade Charity used the proceeds of the sale to
buy a football pitch, a cricket field and tennis courts for
the community. Then in 1963 a new fundraising campaign began
for a swimming pool to be built . Again the people of Chipping
Norton showed what they could do, raising the funds in just
7 years and our open-air pool was opened in 1970.
West Oxfordshire District Council (WODC) took over the running
of the pool and sub-contracted management of the pool to Wycombe
Leisure. Then, in July 2002, the town’s new leisure
centre (with its own heated indoor swimming pool) was opened
and WODC announced that the outdoor pool was to close.
2003 saw the creation of KOPO (Keep Our Pool Open) a campaigning
group united by their love of the facility. They mounted a
spirited “Use it or Lose It” campaign collecting
3,000 names on a petition. KOPO garnered tremendous publicity
and organised many special events that saw numbers and income
rise.
Together with the support of the Town Council they lobbied
WODC who agreed a one-year reprieve.
Late in 2004 WODC announced the withdrawal of their subsidy
and the KOPO committee formed a company to manage The Lido,
Chipping Norton Lido Limited signed a new lease to run the
site and recruited a new manager.
After two years of intense campaigning, KOPO was successful
in keeping the Chipping Norton Lido open, although the grant
from WODC was halved and eventually cut entirely. Chipping
Norton Town Council agreed to award the Lido £6,000
for two years but the majority of the trading deficit has
been met from funds raised by the Lido team. In the future
fund raising will continue to be important to subsidise the
operating costs, improve the facilities and replace the aging
machinery and plant.
Find out how you can help – go to Securing
the Lido’s Future.
Download the Trustees Report & Accounts for the 2008/9 season here (PDF file 123KB) |
This spring will see the Lido’s new Eco-efficient energy system become fully operational. It is the culmination of many long months of negotiating, applying to funders and hard physical work by the small band of volunteers! 
electric and plumbing fixtures.
