APPPROVAL has been given to replace Hadleigh's ageing swimming pool with a new £11,000 spa bath. A Babergh District Council committee gave the go-ahead for the Spa bath, which will replace the existing 14-year-old one, which is leaking and beyond repair.

APPPROVAL has been given to replace Hadleigh's ageing swimming pool with a new £11,000 spa bath.

A Babergh District Council committee gave the go-ahead for the Spa bath, which will replace the existing 14-year-old one, which is leaking and beyond repair.

Ryan Jones, head of technical services at yesterday's strategy committee, said cost of the replacement spa bath, which is likely to be in operation for five years, is justified because it is used by 10,000 people a year and generates income for the pool.

Babergh District Council, the pool's sole trustee, has already agreed that the pool, built in the 1970s, will eventually be demolished and a new one built near the town's leisure centre.

However, until a feasibility study of the new site is complete and the council has found a way of raising the estimated £2.5 million needed to build a new pool, councillors have agreed the existing pool in Stonehouse Road should continue to provide a full range of services. It is likely the earliest date a new pool will open is 2007.

Now it has been discovered that the spa bath is leaking, beyond repair and has lasted well beyond its expected life of 10 years.