TRUSTEES at a popular community swimming pool were “disappointed” to find they'd been burgled of around £80 worth of goods following a break-in at the weekend. 

Staff at Bathurst Open Air Pool, just off the A48 in Lydney, discovered evidence of the break-in when they arrived on site on the morning of Monday, June 5.

After reviewing their CCTV footage they discovered that four offenders, believed to be “youths” who had visited the pool the day before, had stolen a large amount of confectionary from their shop.

Police now have the CCTV footage of the incident and are investigating, with anyone with information being urged to come forward. 

The pool is run by volunteers for the benefit of the community and the trust has previously won awards for voluntary service.

Chair of trustees Bob Berryman said the loss of stock is something they “can’t really afford” going into their busiest period amid the rising costs of running the pool day-to-day. 

He said they’d only checked the CCTV and found out there’d been a break-in because a few things were out of place at the site on the Monday. 

Bob explained that four youths had visited the pool at 5.15pm on Sunday, June 4, to swim, but that the pool closes at 5pm to the public. 

He said the group, who said they were from Chepstow, were spotted hanging around up the road by one of the trustees just after they’d locked up.

The next morning, they noticed a ladder was out of place but thought nothing of it, until they opened up the shop and found the freezer open. 

“We thought one of our members had left it open, until one of the team checked the cameras and found these four youths had come over the wall and were swimming in the pool. 

“He then checked the shop camera, and they were there with their rucksacks, loading them up with stuff from the shop. 

“One of our lifeguards said ‘shouldn’t we have four ladders?’ and we found that one was missing - they’d used it against the wall to get in and out and we found it in the field over the back.”

Police said the incident is believed to have happened between 10-11pm on Sunday night.

Bob said along with their own security cameras, police also have access to two managed by the town council, which were installed following criminal damage at the pool years ago.  

Bob said that apart from last week’s incident, “touch wood, we haven’t had any trouble for a number of years”. 

“The only good thing is they didn’t do any damage”, he added. 

He said the perpetrators are thought to be 15-16 years of age and were dressed all in black, but did not cover their faces on the CCTV footage. 

On how the trustees are feeling after the incident, Bob said: “It’s a community pool, every penny goes into it, every year we try and improve it. 

“We’ve really tried to keep the prices screwed down - one session 12-5pm for kids is still only £2.50. 

“We sell cheap stuff in the shop so they can have something to eat, we’ve kept it all as low as we can this year - the price of everything has gone through the ceiling - and then you get a knock back. We’re all really disappointed.” 

Police say their enquiries are ongoing and that anyone with information is asked to get in touch using the form on Gloucestershire Constabulary’s website, quoting incident 234 from June 6.