No planning went into future of Smethwick swimming baths despite agreement it would close seven years ago
No planning was done for the future of a historic but now empty and vandalised swimming baths in Smethwick despite a council agreeing it would close seven years ago.
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Smethwick Baths in Thimblemill Road closed in 2023 following the opening of the £73m Sandwell Aquatics Centre and the grade II listed building is set to be sold as part of a move by Sandwell Council to save £840,000.
The art deco baths, which were open for more than 90 years before closing in July last year, have since been “extensively” vandalised with doors, toilets, and windows smashed, leaving taxpayers footing £7,500 extra a month for tighter security.
Sandwell Council is looking to save £840,000 this year by “renationalising its assets” – including selling the historic former Smethwick Baths – which led to questions being raised over why it had taken the council nearly a decade to reach a decision at a budget scrutiny meeting on January 21.
Councillor Peter Hughes, the cabinet member responsible for regeneration at Sandwell Council, said “balls had been dropped” over previous years and that “no planning” had gone into the future use of Smethwick Baths after the opening of the state-of-the-art Sandwell Aquatics Centre to the public in 2023. He said, “All preparations into the future thinking [of the baths] … had no planning process.”
As part of its decision in 2018 to build the swimming centre for the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, Sandwell Council also agreed it would also be closing Smethwick Baths.
Councillor Ellen Fenton, chair of the budget scrutiny board, said at the meeting: “For me, it is what lessons have been learnt in identifying what assets are going to no longer be required, and I think Thimblemill Baths is a prime example of this.
“We knew in probably 2015 or 2016 that there were plans to make that change but yet here we are in 2025 and we have still got an asset sat empty.”
Councillor Hughes was asked why the building had been left to rot when the council knew it was going to be surplus to requirements years before it closed.
He said: “We can’t re-run what has happened but I suppose the learning of process that is if you’re ever going to have something that is planned in the future, that you actually take the steps to do something about the issues that have been put forward,” he told the budget scrutiny meeting.
Sandwell Council’s cabinet officially agreed in 2018 that Smethwick Baths would close after the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and the newly built Sandwell Aquatics Centre opened to the public in 2023.
The decision to put Smethwick Baths on the market came more than a year after Sandwell Council agreed to work on plans by music charity the People’s Orchestra to move into the grade II listed building to create a new music venue and community hub.
However, the People’s Orchestra’s grand plans would have relied heavily on government funding, according to the council, and the Black Country local authority would have still been responsible for running the building – estimated to balloon to £2.7m for at least the three years while the funding bid was prepared.
The council then rejected those plans – over fears it is too risky and costly – and instead put the building up for sale.
The site was listed for sale following the decision by cabinet in July last year with Sandwell Council said to be listening to offers above £250,000.
Councillor Hughes said Cabinet’s decision to delay in July was a “good thing” as he believed the People’s Orchestra’s plans were not up to scratch.
“The initial interest in it wasn’t good enough as far as I was concerned,” he told councillors. “I wasn’t satisfied that the full marketing assessments had been carried out.”
Sandwell Council said last year it had more than 130 ‘assets’ in its property portfolio worth around £11m that are surplus to requirements and the Black County authority is looking to sell those off to meet a ‘savings target’ of more than £4m in the next two years.
