A FORMER city swimming pool looks finally set to be demolished after long delays and could make way for 'at least' 50 new homes.

The derelict former Sansome Walk swimming pool, which closed in December 2016, was due to have been demolished earlier this year but work was delayed to due to a higher-than-expected amount of asbestos found in the building and buried in the ground.

The cost of demolishing the former swimming pool has already risen to at least £2.2 million.

Worcester City Council has been in discussions with Homes England - which has access to around 40 approved developers - about potentially building houses on the site of the former swimming pool and whether it could offer any money to support making the site safe and ready for development.

Due to this Thursday's general election, Homes England has not been able to confirm whether it would be able to offer any funding and is likely to reveal its decision at the start of next year.

The council is waiting for a firmer decision from Homes England.

To access grant money from Homes England, the development would need to be of at least 50 homes.

Even more money would be needed to make the site safe and ready for development - but even an estimate of that cost has yet to have been revealed.

It has also been proposed by the council that the scheme would be "over and above" in terms of environmental sustainability - particularly with the council declaring a climate emergency and committing to go carbon neutral by 2030.

The council said it wants to put more importance on providing a quality development rather than a solely cash-generated one.

Discussions by councillors in July revealed the council was expecting demolition to start in February next year and last eight and a half months until October.

A number of surveys were carried out in 2017 to find out how much asbestos was in the building before the contract for the demolition work was put out to tender.

Additional surveys in September last year found more asbestos than was expected leading to further investigations.

Councillors first backed plans to demolish the former swimming pool in January 2017 after concerns the derelict site would become a target for vandals and trespassers.