Bingley: Gym inside the pool building is due to close

Bingley Gym is located in the Bingley Pool building next to Myrtle Park. Despite the pool shutting in 2020, the small on-site gym has remained open.

Bradford Council, which operates the facility, has now revealed that it plans to close the gym as part of “investigatory work” into the pool’s future.

Recent figures show that in the 2022/23 financial year, the gym was used just 860 times.

In that same period, the gym brought in £58,000, but cost Bradford Council £365,000 to keep open and maintain.

It means the facility was subsidised with £307,000 of taxpayer money – a subsidy that works out as £357 per visit.

Plans to close the gym have been revealed in a report looking at proposals to re-open Bingley Pool.

Bingley Pool (Image: Newsquest)

In March, Government announced that it would award a Bradford Council bid to “revitalise” Bingley town centre £14.5m in Levelling Up funding.

The bid would see the pool re-opened with “a remodelled swimming pool, gym and studio facilities, along with a new café” as well as improvements to the town’s Market Square.

A report going to Bradford Council’s Executive on Tuesday reveals that the council will need to identify additional cash for the scheme to be fully funded.

Referring to the need to close the gym, the report says: “For the Levelling Up Fund project to maintain the possibility of proceeding, it now requires a detailed design and cost analysis.

“This requires intrusive investigations and surveys to be conducted inside and outside the building before a final decision can be made regarding the future of the pool and gym facilities.

"The building will need to close with immediate effect to enable this investigatory work to proceed.

“Operating the Bingley Gym is an exceptionally high cost to the council at £307k per year in overall subsidy. This is compounded by the fact that usage is extremely low with just 860 visits per year (mostly from a very small number of repeat users).”

It goes on to say the Levelling Up Fund requires a minimum of 10 per cent match funding, and that Bradford Council is currently exploring where this £1.4m will come from.

The report also discusses the “various options” when it comes to reopening the pool.

It says a six-lane, 25m pool would cost £17,114,461.

A four-lane, 25m pool would cost £14,855,664.

The demolition of the pool building and construction of a new facility would cost £18,036,265.

The Executive meets in City Hall at 10.30am on Tuesday.