A NEW swimming pool could help save lives by tackling high levels of health deprivation in Pitsea, councillors have said.

Plans to build the four-lane swimming pool at the Eversley Leisure Centre were approved at a meeting on Wednesday.

Councillors and officers said swimming was the most popular sport in the borough and hoped the new provision would help tackle issues of deprivation and health inequality in the ward.

According to a council report, the average life expectancy for women in Pitsea is a year less than the Basildon average and three years less for men.

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Officers at the meeting said the number of obese adults was 3.1 per cent higher than the borough average, and the number of obese children was higher than the national average.

Speaking at the meeting, councillor Bernard Foster said: “I think to say the people in the borough were upset when they lost their swimming pool is the understatement of the year.”

Later he said: “It will definitely be well used and could even save a few peoples’ lives.”

The old swimming pool in Pitsea was demolished in 2012 to make way for a Morrisons supermarket, which then pulled out of the project soon after.

The borough council’s head of culture and health, Grant Taylor, told councillors the swimming pool would predominantly serve Pistea South-East, Pitsea North-West and Vange, which have the highest levels of health deprivation in the borough.

He said: “This is a particularly important opportunity to tackle health in the area where it’s most in need with the sport that is most popular in our borough.”

Councillor Craig Rimmer added: “Absolutely we have a problem with health and wellbeing in Pitsea and across the borough and this is another opportunity to elevate people’s health and wellbeing and their longevity.

“We are actually living longer as a nation but unfortunately many of those years are unhealthy towards the end of our lives and if we look to other countries they have a much better record in actually living older and living well.”

In addition to the swimming pool, changing facilities and extension to the car park will be built.

Facilities will be fully wheelchair accessible, with level access between the changing rooms and the pool.