LIDO bosses have warned a rival £4.5 million open air swimming pool on Brighton seafront will hurt their prospects.

Saltdean Lido CIC directors are trying to attract the same customers as the Sea Lanes complex in Madeira Drive - to the possible detriment of both.

Sea Lanes bosses, who were granted a 150 year lease for their beach site last week, said they were targeting a different market and could operate with the lido team.

The Saltdean Lido 40 metre pool is set to open in Easter following a £2.8 million revamp while the 50 metre pool at the Madeira Drive site could be ready to open by the end of next year.

At Thursday’s council committee meeting, officers said they saw the two venues as a “complementary” and not a “competitive offer”.

Council leader Warren Morgan suggested a ticketing system could be organised allowing swimmers to use all council-run swimming pools, Sea Lanes and Saltdean Lido.

Saltdean Lido CIC director Bridget Fishleigh said other options for the Madeira Drive site should have been explored such as a much-desired ice rink.

She said: “The council wants to position the lido as a family destination and the new pool as for the more serious swimmer.

“We haven’t done that.

“For the lido to survive we need to appeal to the most number of people and we have been in contact with triathlon clubs around the country for years.

“If it comes to 4pm on a Wednesday afternoon, I don’t think Sea Lanes is going to be turning away children because they are a pool for serious swimmers.

“There are only so many swimmers in the city so we will be fighting over the same people.

“If we fail then the pool goes back to the council and it goes back to being their problem when we had come along and been a solution for them.

“I just wish SwimTrek or Swimmergy [corporate partners for Sea Lanes] had come to us a few years ago and not just teamed up with a bunch of property developers.”

Simon Murie, founder of SwimTrek, said: “We are certainly targeting the fitness side of things, the whole idea of the facility is a training facility.

“This is not going to be a totally recreational facility whereas the lido is going to be somewhere where families will have a swim, we’re targeting different markets.

“We have had some very good conversations with the Saltdean Lido team and I think there are ways that we can cooperate in terms of expertise and maintenance.”