Repair pool tiles and replace expansion joints

Aim

Funding Phase One: essential repairs to the pool tiles and expansion joints which are required to reopen the pool.

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We are progressing with the legalities of the Freehold with Hertfordshire County Council and we should be the official owners by February 2026. They are however willing to grant us a licence to enable works to start as soon as possible. So we just need to raise our target of £30,000 to start work repairing the pool tiles and expansion joints. This along with the plant room refurbishment should see the pool open again by Autumn 2026.

Introduction

Swimming is a vital life skill, yet Buntingford has been without a public pool since the closure of Ward Freman Swimming Pool in December 2023. The Ward Freman Community Pool Group is committed to changing that – by repairing, reopening, and revitalising the pool as a community-run asset.

Our long term vision is to create a modern, inclusive space that serves everyone – from families and schools to fitness groups and rehabilitation programmes. The upgraded building will offer flexible, multi-use areas alongside swimming activities, making it a hub for wellbeing and connection. A fit for purpose facility that residents of Buntingford and surrounding villages can be proud of. You can find out more about our vision here or on our webpage.

The first step to achieve this in our phased approach is to get the doors open bringing the sound of water splashing back to Buntingford and start generating an income that will be reinvested directly in the pool, not a management company. The essential work to do this is the replacement of the original filtration system, which is way past its life expectancy and to repair the broken tiles caused by failed expansion joints. Ideally we would wish to retile the whole pool, but this is very expensive and not essential to reopen the pool but will be on the schedule of works within the next 15years.

Background

The Ward Freman Community Pool group initially raised funds to commission an independent survey of the pool and building in June 2024. The results were clear that the building is sound, with no indication of subsidence and therefore worth the investment of the community and charity to reopen the pool.

East Herts District Council have pledged funds which will pay for a new filtration system. Not only will this make it safe to go in the water, but a modern system has the potential to result in a 56% reduction in energy consumption over the existing plant (based on an Active Filter Medium (AFM) filtration system).

Expansion joints and Tile project

There are several areas of broken tiles which whilst the pool was open, were being managed by being covering with blue plastic mats. There was speculation about the cause of the broken tiles.  With the pool fully drained, a full inspection was made by Pell Frischmann. Their report identified that failed expansion joints were the cause as there were no cracks penetrating the substrate.
Expansion joints are joints in the tiled surface of the pool made of a flexible sealant and have a design life of 20 years. (We are led to believe that the current joints may be original and so 30 years past their shelf life).  They allow for subtle movement due to constant changes of water temperature to prevent the tiles from cracking. Over time they become less flexible which leads to the cracked tiles. 

The Pell Frischmann report stated that whilst a full retile was desirable, localised repairs with the correct materials, followed by a comprehensive maintenance schedule i.e. renewal after fifteen years, would solve the problem and prevent recurrence.  

A full retile would cost in the order of £150,000 whereas repairs to broken tiles along with new sump inlet and outlet grilles would cost £64,000. We have got £16,000 s106 money already in place and have already raised £4322 on our main Crowdfunder page. There is also £10,000 UK Shared Prosperity Fund money available. So, in order to reach our target we aim to raise in this project £29,678, lets call it £30,000!

£30,000 might still sound a lot, but considering 18,000 people live within 5 miles of the Ward Freman Swimming pool, if everyone contributes it's only £1.67 each!
The great news is that we have been successful in attracting Sport England match funding of £15,000. This means Sport England will contribute £15,000 as long as we raise at least £15,000 with this campaign, so 83p each!

How you can play your part?

There are four simple ways to help us reach our target and make this project a reality.

1. Make a pledge or claim a reward.
Don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our success! Remember with Sport England match funding your donation is effectively doubled!

2. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get. 

3. Offer rewards. Get involved if you are a local business by donating things we can offer to our supporters. We will give you a shout out!

4. Fundraise for us - just click the 'fundraise for this charity' button.
Helen Betley did just that and raised £4030 from a record breaking butterfly swim around the island of Jersey in July 2024.
If you want to run your own fundraiser  – maybe a sponsored activity (it doesn't have to be as difficult as open water butterfly swimming) or similar – use the 'fundraise for this charity' button. Setting up your own page only takes a few minutes and you won’t need any bank details. Just a fun idea!

The Future

Replacing the filtration system, broken tiles and expansion joints will enable the pool to reopen looking pretty much how it did when it closed. However it will be run by the charity for the benefit of the local community with increased opening hours and more public availability during the day.
To do this we will require the support of our community to give the rest of the building a thorough cleaning and general maintenance jobs, but it will allow the community of Buntingford, surrounding villages and schools to swim once again.

For the pool to thrive and be an asset that the community are proud of we will need to continue fundraising and investing in the following phases;

The second phase will be to install sustainable sources of energy to reduce the overall running costs and carbon footprint of the facility.

The third phase will be to renovate the "dry" side of the building to create welcoming and inclusive changing facilities.

The final phase will be to create a flexible community café space with improved pool viewing, to diversify income. Our aspirations is that this space can be used by other groups to meet, such as the Friday Night Youth Group, who are currently using the Cricket Pavilion after HCC closed the Technical Institute. This space can also be partitioned to provide a smaller private area. 

For phases three and four, we have been working with G2 Architecture, who donated their time and services to our cause, to create a new plan for the reception and changing rooms. The brief was to include accessible changing for people with impairments, families and school groups. The addition of a café and flexible social space is intended to increase the dwell time of patrons and raise additional income. Improved viewing of the pool was also key in the design brief.
More information about the final plan can be found on our website.

Funding for these future phases will be through further s106 contributions from new housing that has been approved in the area. The Vistry development adjacent to the Bovis estate has £208,000 allocated to swimming pools but this money will not be available until houses are actually occupied (2028 at the earliest). Along with the charity seeking further grants and excess income generated from the pool.

Remember you can make a difference, no matter how big or small your donation is, and together we will be able to return to swimming at Ward Freman.

This project successfully funded on 3rd January 2026