Community volunteers make waves to help Chester City Baths as Pacific Pool reopens next month

Members of Good For Nothing Chester (GFN) – a passionate collective of more than 400 creative volunteers who accelerate local community challenges and projects for free – gave their free time to help the Chester City Baths.

One of the baths' two pools, the Pacific, has been closed since the Covid-19 pandemic.

Both the Atlantic and Pacific pools were drained during the lockdowns, but water seepage had caused damage to a large number of tiles to the Pacific Pool, rendering it inoperable.

Since lockdown restrictions lifted, the Pacific Pool had remained off limits, but Chester Swimming Association had successfully crowdfunded on Spacehive to repair the pool and provide energy, labour and teacher training costs to make it viable once more.

However, while the Pacific Pool is due to reopen in September, Chester Swimming Association still had concerns it would be able to make financial ends meet, given that the recent soaring energy costs have meant heating the pool and the Grade II-listed building would cost £10k per month.

Cheshire West and Chester Councillor Richard Beacham and City of Chester MP Chris Matheson reached out to GFN to see if they could help.

And so GFN Chester, holding its first in-person 'hack' since the Covid pandemic, held a large brainstorming session at Chester City Baths in efforts to raise the venue's profile and boost income streams.

After 24 hours of collaborative effort, the volunteers were rewarded with a pool party in the Atlantic pool, along with people from the Baths.

Trevor Warner, company secretary at Chester City Baths, said: "Good for Nothing Chester spent a whole evening with us on Friday, and all day 'hacking' our challenge around how do we raise our profile in Chester, get more and different people in through the doors, and ensure when we fill The Pacific pool with water, people will use it!

"We don't want to make huge profits - we just want to keep this amazing heritage space open and being used.

"It is too important and unique to not fight for. We're absolutely overwhelmed by the innovative and exciting plans that have come out, and can't wait to meet with the hackers again to get going!"

Chester Good for Nothing leads Holly Nelson (left) and Uná Meehan (right).

Holly Nelson, co-founder of Good for Nothing Chester, added: "Chester City Baths is a hugely important piece of heritage, unique to our city of Chester, and providing top quality swimming facilities steeped in history.

"The Baths are run by a team of committed volunteers, passionate do-gooders just like our Good for Nothing Chester volunteers.

"This was our first in-person hack since Covid struck in March 2020, and we could see just how valuable our support would mean to the Baths, and the impact we can create for them.

"Local businesses and people have showed us (and the Baths) such immense encouragement and support – including donating food and drink to keep our hackers fuelled across the 24 hours. These include fantastic independents Peak Sandwiches, The Bear Bakery, Liquor & Co, and Popcorn.

"Our hackers developed some really creative and exciting concepts for the Baths, to help raise awareness and drive in more income.

"We will now continue to help them realise these in the next few months. We can't wait to see the Pacific filled with water and this iconic space thriving once again!"

Chester City Baths will be used by more than 800 schoolchildren learning to swim each week, along with more than 300 adult paying members, Chester Triathlon Club, Chester Sub-Aqua Club, Chester Water Polo Club and Chester Swimming Club.