Petition to save swimming pool hits 2,500 mark

A petition calling for a swimming pool to be saved from closure has reached more than 2,500 signatures as campaigners try to halt its sale.

The Friends of Bingley Pool launched their petition earlier this month amid fears Bradford Council was considering selling the site, which is currently closed and in need of repairs.

Jeremy Thackray, co-chair of the Friends of Bingley Pool, said they believed the pool still had a promising future.

Mr Thackray said: "Bradford Council has done the numbers and this is a viable pool. It did submit a Levelling Up bid, and they wouldn't have done that if they thought this pool was going to just bleed money from their systems and not be able to pay for itself."

The pool had been in line for a portion of £14m Levelling Up cash awarded to Bradford Council under the previous Conservative government.

But following Labour's general election victory last year, all applications to the Towns Fund that had reached a certain stage were reassessed, and it was later confirmed that Bingley's bid had been rejected.

Bingley Pool was closed in 2020 during the Covid pandemic but was never reopened.

That same year, the building fell into disrepair and plaster started to fall from the ceiling, according to Mr Thackley.

The damage meant Bradford Council felt it was "no longer in a position to hand over the building to a community group for operation without knowing it was structurally sound", he said.

"There is an upfront capital bill for repairs and renovation that has to be met and very few community groups would be in a position to scrub up that sort of money," he explained.

"The option we were talking about with Bradford previously was that you would go into partnership with a private provider to try to come to an agreement whereby you were still offering access to the pool."

Mr Thackley said the pool's closure meant local schools were struggling to fulfil their statutory requirement to provide swimming lessons.

He said: "We have been in touch with all of the schools in Bingley recently to reaffirm their position on this and they are paying much more now.

"They have to get transport out to Shipley to do their lessons. As a result, Shipley is at the point of being oversubscribed now as well.

"They're either having to do that or they're getting in temporary kind of splash paddling pool type things at the schools themselves."

Speaking earlier this month, a Bradford Council spokesperson said the authority was considering the next steps for the site and it would keep the Friends of Bingley Pool group informed.

Bradford Council has been approached for further comment.

Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.