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New hope for future of listed Moseley heritage baths

BBC Moseley ShoalsBBC
Moseley Road Baths is one of only three Grade II listed pools still open in the UK

A historic swimming baths, due to close this summer, looks set to stay open a while longer.

Birmingham City Council is proposing to keep Moseley Baths open until March 2018.

It says this will allow community organisations more time to prepare plans for the building's future use.

Serious structural issues mean the council cannot afford to keep it good repair, it says.

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Moseley Road Baths is the oldest of three Grade II listed swimming pools still in use in Britain.

Attilio Fiumarella Moseley Road BathsAttilio Fiumarella
In 2014 more than 100 swimmers posed as a "terracotta army" for an arts project at the pool

It has been closed twice since 2004 for urgent repairs and one of the two pools remains out of use. The other is used by the whole community.

The council's deputy leader, Ian Ward said: "Unfortunately [the building] has some serious structural issues and the costs of repair are exorbitant and out of the council's reach.

"We hope by keeping the pool open for another nine months we can give the National Trust and other groups enough time to prepare plans for the pool's future use."

The National Trust has said that if the pool was to close, even for a short period, the cost of reopening would be significant.

A coalition has been set up to look at the baths' future. It includes Historic England, National Trust, Moseley Road Baths Action Group, the Friends of Moseley Road Bath, Civic and the World Monuments Fund.