Council could have deeper pockets for building pool
REWORKING the design of a swimming pool at a council’s proposed multi-million pound new leisure centre has not yet been ruled in – or out – as a possibility.
Calderdale Council’s new leisure centre, which will be built on the site of the existing one at North Bridge, Halifax, will include a new swimming pool to replace the old Halifax Swimming Pool at Skircoat Road, closed at the onset of the pandemic and which will not re-open as the authority says it is uneconomic to make the necessary repairs.
However, Halifax Synchronised Swimming Club, which used the facility, has campaigned for the design to be redone as the new pool’s proposed dimensions will not be deep enough for it to use it.
If the designs remain unaltered it will force the club, which is national champions at two levels, out of the borough, it says.
Members protested outside Halifax Town Hall when the full council met in September.
Councillors were told that increasing the depth would add £2m costs which the council could not afford.
But last week’s news that the council has been awarded £12.2m for the project in the first round of awards made by the Government’s Levelling Up Fund has seen the club and some councillors raise the prospect of revisiting the design.
Clr Jacob Cook (Con, Greetland and Stainland) asked Coun Swift that now Calderdale had been successfully awarded Levelling Up fund money for the new leisure centre, would the position be reconsidered?
“Will that be used to improve facilities and add deep water diving to them?
“The reason given was there wasn’t enough money there,” he said. Leader of the Council, Clr Tim Swift (Lab, Town), who has welcomed the Levelling Up money, said the council was waiting for the specific detail of the funding bid and what the conditions were, to progress design detail and delivery.
As soon as the council got confirmation of those it would be looking at what the implications might be in terms of what is deliverable in the timescale.
“Do bear in mind though the Levelling Up Fund does require us to get the project delivered within a particular timescale, but we will be looking at what’s feasible and making sure that the scheme that’s delivered with the money is the best possible,” he said.