This is when Ponds Forge will reopen to the public

The Trust said the Olympic-class city centre venue will reopen to the public on October 26.

A spokesperson for Sheffield City Trust said: “Ponds Forge is an iconic venue for Sheffield, so it was devastating that we couldn’t open it straight away because of financial restrictions caused by major events such as conferences, exhibitions, banquets and major sports events not being allowed to take place.

“It was a very difficult financial decision to keep Ponds Forge closed when other venues were re-opening so we believe it shows great courage from the council to listen to proposals we have been working on – alongside other partners – and look at a way to provide us with the ability to open it."

It follows a campaign by aquatic clubs based there who said they would not be able to survive until April 2021, which was previously estimated as a 'best case scenario' reopening date.

Sheffield Council and the Trust initially decided to keep Ponds Forge closed when they reopened most of their leisure facilities in August.

The council gave up to £15 million to enable SCT to do this but at the time said it would be too expensive to reopen Ponds Forge too.

It since U-turned after the aquatics clubs' campaign gathered support from thousands of people across the city and every MPs in Sheffield.

The cost on the council to reopen the facility this month will be £1.6 million, and is also due to save 76 jobs from redundancy at Sheffield City Trust.