Work to demolish an old swimming pool building in Carlisle is in its preparatory phase.

Cumberland Council said it expects to get to work on its major demolition work after Easter and for now is preparing the area.

The work involves segregating existing work areas so they don’t overlap or interfere, such as Devonshire Street and asbestos removal at the Turkish Baths.

Much of the wiring for the 70s building is shared with the 19th-century Turkish Baths building which is set to remain, yet closed to the public.

A Cumberland Council spokesperson said: “The whole logistics have been rejigged.

“We’ve had to protect some of the high voltage cables above the station so we don’t damage them, there’s a lot of work before we can do any demolition.”

Care has to be applied regarding electrical cables to not damage anything associated with the Turkish Baths, so an electrical investigation team has been hired to assess the site so that when any buildings are pulled down, it doesn’t take any of the Baths with it, the council said.

The cables ‘feed through the same distribution board’ so stands as a complex manoeuvre.

Work to protect the asbestos removal workers at the Baths includes leaving them with the space and time to shower after every visit, they said.

“We don’t want to leave one of the buildings half done, we would like to leave much of the building intact until after Easter when we can go at it,” the spokesperson said, adding that at the moment, a single-storey building has been taken down to allow machinery to enter, but nothing major yet.

The area is walled heavily and there are currently pedestrian access restrictions around Nelson Bridge and part of James Street as a result.

The walls by Matalan in front of the former Staples building which has been demolished remain.

The work to demolish The Pools is part of Cumberland Council’s ‘Station Gateway’ project which will see a large car park built where the Staples building once stood and more pedestrianisation around the station entrance.

It has involved also the resurfacing of James Street and the removal of a mini roundabout at the junction of Water Street/Rome Street, where a traffic light junction system is now in place.