BROOMHILL Pool has today received a lifeline after councillors agreed to make a formal lottery application to rebuild it.Ipswich council agreed to spend £67,000 on a full application to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for a grant to support the restoration of the 1938 lido.
BROOMHILL Pool has today received a lifeline after councillors agreed to make a formal lottery application to rebuild it.
Ipswich council agreed to spend £67,000 on a full application to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for a grant to support the restoration of the 1938 lido.
It is estimated that such work would cost well over £3 million.
However members of the council's executive decision were warned that there was no guarantee the grant would be made – the HLF has not given any indication of whether an application would be successful.
Council leisure spokesman John Mowles said members of the Broomhill Pool Trust were unanimously in support of making the application.
"This is the best, realistically the only, chance of getting enough money to restore what is a much-loved Ipswich facility," he said.
"We would have liked to get an indication from the HLF about how they would look on our application – one way or another.
"They haven't been able to give us such an indication, but the potential benefits are so great that it would be worth getting up a full application," he said.
Such an application would require reports from specialist surveyors, building and heritage experts, and a public consultation exercise to find out how much support there would be for the work locally.
A spokesman for the HLF told the Star that it was unable to give any indication of whether the application would be successful.
"HLF supports projects which combine the preservation of the historic fabric with increased public access and enjoyment, and historic swimming pools can certainly fill that requirement, if mad accessible to the broadest possible audience," he said.
"We would not be able to fund routine repairs or maintenance work, or use HLF money to contribute towards upgrading or changes that would damage the historic character and interest of the pool."
Do you think Broomhill should be saved? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk
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