A local group has taken major steps toward building a new outdoor swimming pool in Abergavenny costing somewhere in the region of £7m.

Abergavenny Lido Group this week announced it was preparing the groundwork for a study into costs, and had set up a growdfunding page to get the ambitious project off the ground.

The old swimming pool in Bailey Park was closed and filled in more than 20 years ago.

Since the idea was first made public, the group has enjoyed local support– a petition calling for a new lido received more than 1,000 signatures – as well as warm words from the town council and Monmouthshire County Council.

The Lido Group’s committee is now preparing a feasibility study to agree the project’s costs, and present the findings to Monmouthshire County Council.

However, back in October, the council warned that it would not be able to help fund the venture, so the committee has decided to

set up a crowdfunding page where donations can be made.

The original outdoor swimming pool in Abergavenny opened in Bailey Park in 1938.

Volunteers and the town council kept the project going after it was closed by the former Monmouth Borough Council, but the pool eventually closed in 1996 after volunteers struggled to keep it viable.

If the Abergavenny Lido Group is successful, it plans to build a new swimming pool on the same site as the old lido.

Councillors, back in October, given a lukewarm reception to plans to build a £7m outdoor swimming pool in Abergavenny’s Bailey Park.

County councillors at the Bryn y Cym committee meeting back in October were keen to lend their support to the campaign, but underscored the financial realities involved in a proposal which would likely run towards the £7m mark.

The group said it was not asking the council for money to build, or maintain, the proposed 50m outdoor pool but was looking for permission to apply for first-stage funding and feasibility studies which in a boost to ALG’s ambitions was granted.

The ALG’s proposal, outlined in a document include a 50m pool, a learner pool, changing facilities, and restaurant.

The ambitious plans could even play host to the World Ice Water Championships.

The bid to build a lido at Abergavenny’s Bailey Park follows a campaign first born on social media page Abergavenny Voice.

Support for the idea was then backed by what ALG claimed was a ‘resurgence’ in outdoor swimming, stoked by the record-breaking heat of summer.

One example giving ballast to the idea is that of Lido Ponty, which reopened in Pontypridd in 2015 after closing for nearly 30 years.

Lido Ponty cost an estimated £6.3m to completely refurbish, and is currently subsidised by Rhondda Cynon Taff Council.

That project this Summer saw over 40,000 people visit by July, since it re-opened for the 2019 season.

Records show visitors travelling from as far as Devon, Essex and Oxfordshire.

Latest figures released at the end of the Summer school term show that 40,000 people had visited Lido Ponty for a swim in the open air pools and 10,000 had enjoyed the inflatable activities on offer.

Abergavenny’s original outdoor pool was built in 1938 and open during in the summer months only.

Monmouth Borough Council closed it in the early 1980s.

A town council and volunteer effort keep the pool open lasted a few years before it permanently closed.

To find out more about the Lido Group, visit www.abergavennylidogroup.co.uk and to donate to the group’s crowdfunding project, visit www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/abergavenny-lido