A MUCH-loved outdoor swimming pool has received £18,000 for a major revamp to its changing rooms.

But it’s not time to call in the builders yet, as trustees at Chipping Norton Lido, in Fox Close, need to raise an additional £18,000 before work can go ahead.

The money has come from the Kellogg’s Swim Active Scheme and the pool was one of only a handful nationally to receive cash.

Now an auction hosted by local resident and lido supporter Jeremy Clarkson is planned for October, and other funding applications are also in the pipeline.

The pool had been under threat when West Oxfordshire District Council decided it no longer wanted to be responsible for it. It was taken over by the community and opens to the public from April to September. This year’s season ends on Sunday.

Trustee Claire Jarvis said: “When we took over the pool in 2004 we inherited the equipment and buildings. They were more or less in their original 1970s condition .

“We have already stripped out and replaced showers and loos in the wet changing areas but we want to improve the dry changing rooms.”

The aim is to add non-slip flooring, cubicles, benches, lockers, and baby changing facilities.

The project will cost £45,000, with the lido providing £9,000 to £10,000 from its reserves.

Ms Jarvis said: “In each changing room we will have a fully accessible changing area for people with disabilities and for families, and smaller ones for people who want to change in private.

“There are three small cubicles in the ladies’, but none in the men’s – if you were a man with a family, would you prefer to get them changed in a room full of naked men, or in a private cubicle?”

A grant application for Oxfordshire’s Big Society money was turned down and organisers are now looking to raise the cash elsewhere.

They had hoped to start work this month, but will now have to wait for the results of funding applications.

But Ms Jarvis said it was still hoped the work would be completed in time for the new season in April.