Axed leisure funds could save pool - campaigners

Campaigners are hoping millions of pounds from a cancelled leisure centre project could be used to reopen their local swimming pool.

Bingley Pool closed during the Covid lockdown in 2020 and has remained shut. Earlier this month Bradford Council said it would hold off on selling the pool for six months after it was previously listed as a disposable asset.

Last week, Bradford Council's Reform UK-led executive voted to scrap a project for a new leisure centre on Squire Lane in Girlington, which would have cost £32m.

Bingley West councillor Falak Naz Ahmed said the cancellation of the Squire Lane project "opens the door to something we've been fighting for".

"This cancellation releases significant capital funding and we will be pressing hard to ensure that money is redirected to Bingley Pool. Our community has waited long enough," she said.

Chair of the Friends of Bingley Pool, Jeremy Thackray, said he hoped the project would now be in line for some of the funding set aside for Squire Lane.

"We certainly have an interest in making the argument at least that can that money come to a project in Bingley," he said.

The Squire Lane project had received two sources of funding: a £20m government Levelling Up grant and £7.9m of Bradford Council capital funds.

Bradford Council executive said they decided to cancel the project because it did not "demonstrate good fiscal management and deliver value".

According to the council, the facility would have served more than 87,000 people living within 1.5 miles and had already gained planning approval.

However, it would have required councillors to approve an extra £5m in capital funding on top of the £27.9m already secured.

Under conditions of the Levelling Up fund, the £20m is likely to go back to central government, but Thackray said Bingley Pool had previously been in line for Levelling Up money.

"We want to be asking the questions of what's happening to that funding and can it be used in some other beneficial way in the district?," he said.

However, Bingley East councillor Joe Wheatley said he did not expect to see the funds redirected.

"The surplus £12m that the council set aside for capital funding - as far as I understand - the executive position is that it's being used to come down on the council's debt overall," he said.

A petition to reopen Bingley Pool has been supported by more than 10,000 people and according to a council report, there is "substantial public demand for a local swimming facility".

Thackley said it was important that Bingley Pool was not "dismissed prematurely out of a fear that it will be expensive".

He added that a shared project board, which is being created between Bradford Council, the Friends of Bingley Pool and Bingley Town Council, would allow "some sunlight to get on the process".

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