Council secures £14.5m for pool – but can it keep it?

Bradford Council has secured nearly £14.5m worth of funding for Bingley Pool as part of the Government’s Levelling Up programme. The pool first opened in 1927 but has been closed since 2020 due to structural issues.

However, the council needs to now clarify the status of the Levelling Up funding – due to an emergency bail out that it also received to avoid declaring itself bankrupt. In March 2023 Bradford Council received an emergency funding boost from the central government worth £220m over the next two years.

Bradford was among several local authorities to be given Exceptional Financial Support by the government – in order to save essential services. In total, 19 English councils will share an extra £1.5bn of support.

Upon receiving the funding, the government handed Bradford Council a “best value notice” due to concerns around “financial resilience”.

This means the Council will need to undertake a full review of all capital spending projects as part of its plan to ensure the Council returns to financial sustainability and in doing so provides assurance to Government.

Cllr Alex Ross-Shaw said: “While we’re excited about the opportunity of using this money to invest in Bingley, we will clearly need to discuss the detail of it with the government.”