On this page, you will find images of the proposed new look Ward Freman swimming pool from G2 Architecture.  We are hoping to apply for a Community Ownership Fund grant to pay for the majority of the refurbishment. As part of this application we need to demonstrate community consultation and support, so please take a look at the plans and leave us your feedback in the comments box below the images.
If you would like to inspect the proposed floor plan in greater detail, please click here.
Images are best viewed on a tablet or desktop device.

Pool

• New pool tiles
• Standard ladder access into pool as previously with ‘staircase’ style with handrail at the shallow end
• Chair hoist for assisted access
• New air handling system – warming air temperature in pool hall

Changing Village

• 3 large accessible or family change cubicles (2 with showers)
• 26 standard changing cubicles
• 3 extended size changing cubicles
• Open plan showers
• Range of different sized lockers
• 3 individual toilets and a fourth accessible sized toilet

Reception & Social Space

• 2 individual toilets and a third accessible sized toilet
• Café – all seating will be flexible (we will not have fixed booths)
• Seating area can be partitioned to provide private space for hire, whilst still retaining reception and seating area with access to café

We really need your view and comments on these plans. Please get in touch and help shape the future of our pool.
If you do not wish for your comment to appear on the website please let us know.

Thank you to everyone who has commented on our plans so far.

We have had 90 comments, a selection of which are shared below.

• OW – Looks lovely! My only recommendation would be to have normal height chairs rather than tall bar stools in the café area as tall stools are a bit of a nightmare for children and people with access needs.
• JD – It looks really good. I’d prefer individual showers for privacy rather than open-plan, (although I appreciate they would be more expensive). I’d rather have individual showers and open-plan changing rooms, perhaps with a couple of cubicles, than open-plan showers and individual changing cubicles. We have this arrangement at the Nuffield in Hertford and my experience is that most people are happy with the communal changing room.
• DS – The plans look great & with an ever growing population Buntingford has & the surrounding area needs this pool. Learning to swim saves lives.
  My grown up three children all learnt to swim in this pool and so have some of my grandchildren.
• SB – This is a modern and future proof plan that would support community swimming. Including individual swimming, children’s lessons and school lessons. With the closure of this pool and Melbourn pool Royston currently have an additional 300 children wanting to join swim lessons. So many they are considering the need for a further pool. Instead we need to keep the resource of Buntingford pool for the community. Not everyone is able to travel to another town to swim. It is not financially viable for most local schools to provide curriculum swimming now the Buntingford pool is closed. The time out of school to travel further is also not ideal. A shorter journey to Buntingford pool would be beneficial on the wider curriculum.
• AN  – This looks great, a good café will be welcome. I look forward to using this essential Buntingford facility. Probably not room, but an area for teaching safety /resus first aid could be useful ? But poss not space ? Good luck my children learnt to swim and all the schools used this fab facility
• JH – The new plans look amazing and I really hope the pool reopens. I’m currently using Stevenage Swimming Centre once a week but would love to use one in Buntingford again.
• CA – the pictures look great and it will be great to have the pool open again but what about people who are disabled? The chairs in the café  have no arms on them how can they push their selfs up from the seat to stand up or the Elderly both whom love to swim and it’s good for them. All the facilities need to be for everyone to use. Maybe look at other things to good close Disabled parking.  Even ground in the car parks. Parent / child parking. More than one swimming pool for different ages if there’s room and enough toilets for everyone  including children/ Disabled. Also you would need private showers not everyone wants to share and I know family’s need shared changing rooms but not everyone will want unisex ones.
• VP – I like the plans overall but I feel that you need to make access into the pool more accessible for disabled people. Not everyone with a disability would want or needs to use a hoist to enter the pool. In fact  it may put people off from coming as a hoist is in full view of everyone in the pool area and some would find it embarrassing. I have osteoporosis and a false knee joint. I don’t need a hoist but accessible steps and hand rails to enter the pool. Steps attached on the side wall of a pool are no good for me.
• ND – This plan looks great.  The café looks like a great facility that would help support the pool .  Thank you for including the hoist and accessible facilities.
• LW – Looks good to me. Here’s hoping it’s completed soon and has access to the public for most of the day including adults only.
• JSG – Some individual showers would be preferable to all showers being open plan. Staircase style steps into the pool would help older people who find it difficult to  haul themselves up out of the water, or are unsteady on their feet. I’m an experienced swimmer, swimming two miles a week but don’t find ladders easy to use in/out of the water.
• KC – Love the plans, looks like some long awaited improvements. Would love to bring my little one here to swim where I used to work 
• JC – Love the plans, really appreciate what you are doing. Only ask would be not to have a changing village. Please just have smaller single sex changing rooms / showers. The changing village format is a really horrible experience and very family unfriendly. North Herts leisure centre has a very effective changing space with 2 smaller single sex rooms if this is helpful as a template
• SM – Fabulous plans for improvement. An essential and valuable asset for Buntingford community. Well done to everyone involved in the redevelopment.
• Anon – Inspired by the fab plans for the pool, love the increase viewing and relaxed feel
• Anon – Expose the pool to the outside. Open up one of the sides, incorporate the café so it can be accessed to non-swimmers eating outside.
• Anon – The plans look fantastic, light, clean and new. Love the idea of a new name, could reflect Ward Freman but something new would be energetic.
• NT – This plan looks absolutely amazing, just what Buntingford needs and most importantly our children need, some family’s aren’t able to travel and since the pool closed so many children are missing out on important lessons.
• SC – Very impressed with the plans particularly incorporation of a cafe which will help to support the pool financially.
• PC -This plan looks great. I’m not sure who will run it and how that would be funded. I  was a regular user and learned to SCUBA dive here. Both our children learned to swim too. Our population has grown considerably since we came here in the 1970’s. We now have an extra school. We desperately need this community provision for healthy exercise for kids and adults.
• EP – This looks fantastic hope this goes ahead and we end up with a pool open again
• NG – Beautiful! I LOVE the mixed gender changing rooms, my family and I since the closing of Ward Freman pool have been attending Grange Paddocks and love the setting there to go as a family. The cafe is going to be an asset for sure! I understood there were plans to do a studio room to host activities like yoga? But maybe there isn’t any more space.
  Bariatric/disable access to the pool is a must.
• JF – Absolutely brilliant 
  CF – Love the plans. Desperate to get my autistic nearly 7 year old swimming again to build his water safety!! Was on the waiting list before it shut down and was so gutted.
• KR – Really looking forward to a working local pool. The plans look great. Could also have some movable baby changing stations in the main changing area (at other pools they are often very simple plastic changing tables that can be moved next to benches). A café which is inviting enough to also be used as a general meeting area without using the pool may also help to bring in some extra money.
• LH – The plans look great & much are much needed. Having the pool open again would be welcomed & beneficial to many including myself.
• N – I feel this would be great. But we need family changing rooms so that me and my partner can go in the same changing room together to change our twins as my twins do not like to be separated when we go swimming which makes things rather difficult at the moment so we don’t go swimming at the moment as one person is unable to cope with two very young children in a changing room in their own.
• JG – Looks great. More individual showers would be useful.
• SS – Looks fantastic, cannot wait till it reopens, I have been going to Stevenage once a week, it be easier to stay in my own town.
• LH – Congratulations to all concerned. This plan looks great! I think the Buntingford community will be delighted to be able to enjoy this fresh and inviting social area.
• LM – Needs to be accessible for all able bodied and disabled alike, including disabled changing. Pictures show a great improvement and it is encouraging to see that the pool and facilities could, once again, be available to Buntingford
• CH – Wonderful looking plans, much needed for the community, I would definitely make use of the pool again, hopefully with more access to more swimming times as much of the weekend was taken up with lessons only. Disabled changing facilities would be necessary.
• EW – The plans look great and will be so good to have this local rather than having to travel to Royston, is there gym facilities too?
• EE – I think this is brilliant. This would be fantastic for the community, young and old, it would really benefit the local schools.  I personally really miss the pool.
• AH – Needs to be renamed to Buntingford Pool. No such thing as Ward Freman anymore, school rebranded and naming it like the school makes it look like it is not for use of the town.
• RF – Absolutely amazing! Will be a brilliant asset to the community if we can open the pool again
• HB – Looks really good. We would definitely start using it
• JL – Looks great!! Just what we need. I think this will be so beneficial to buntingford.
• SS – That looks amazing, I’m sure it would be a well used asset to our beautiful small town
• AF – The pool area looks good and the changing room with cubicles big enough for mothers with children is much improved.  What’s the need for a cafe?  Also the chairs shown are impractical for older pool users and young children.
• ER – Please keep this pool open, the new plan looks great. My son misses swimming lessons but with working full time local and being a single mum I can’t afford to take him half hour (after school hours there’s always traffic) to another town to have lessons. He loved his lessons here before and I miss doing my lengths. A café viewing area would serve it greatly also. For a growing town we need this.
• ST – It looks fantastic.  Just what the town needs. Well done everyone.
• WH – The plans look good. It would be advisable for the cafè furniture to be moveable and not fixed, to allow a suitable space for staff dry side training and any other necessary training.
• PW – Looks great. Extra light and social space would make it a highly attractive community asset.AS – Looks great , would be good to have a family change area for those who need . Looks fantastic though,  would be back in a heartbeat if it was open again
• DP – The redesign looks fantastic. Would love to see this valuable community asset brought back for the benefit of all local residents. Here’s hoping it becomes reality very soon.
• GW  – This is exactly what the town needs and has been wanting for years. A nice fresh new changing rooms and pool to be opened again.
• RB – Wow! Such a transformation. The last time I used Buntingford pool the changing rooms were horrible . The floor was filthy with ingrained dirt. So this looks fab . I would like to see some enclosed private showers rather than all open plan. I tried to look on the plan but became illegible when enlarged .
  Thank you for all your hard work to date and if this gets off the ground I might even use it!