Be amongst the first to swim at Highlight!

Published Tuesday, 1st April 2025

Families across Hartlepool are being offered the chance to be amongst the first people to enjoy a swim at Highlight, the borough’s new multi-million pound active wellbeing hub.

Fifty family passes are on offer as prizes in a competition to guess how many tiles will be needed to tile the 25-metre eight-lane main pool at the flagship development on The Waterfront.

The 50 closest entries will each win a pass entitling them to one free family swim session for up to two adults and three children.

The winners will be able to use their passes during a test period scheduled for December 2025/January 2026 – before Highlight opens generally to members of the public.

To give people an idea of the scale of the tiling operation currently underway, the total number of tiles to be used across the whole building, including all three pools, the changing rooms and adjacent areas, is almost 62,000.

But how many of these will be used to tile the main pool?

Councillor Gary Allen, Chair of Hartlepool Borough Council’s Adult and Community Based Services Committee, said: “Fantastic progress is being made on Highlight and the start of internal tiling works is the latest key construction milestone to be reached.

“Through this fun competition, we want to give people a chance to share in the excitement of this amazing new development by giving them the opportunity to be amongst the first people to swim at Highlight.”

To enter the competition, email your “guesstimate” to active.hartlepool@hartlepool.gov.uk by 31st May.