BRADFORD Council has announced it is abandoning plans for its new flagship £14 million city centre swimming pool and sports complex due to the “tightening grip of austerity".

The authority had secured the former Britannia Mills site off Nelson Street for just over £1m, and then spent £212,000 on demolition, survey, and design work.

The project has now been shelved, along with plans to build a new pool in Queensbury.

Two new community pools planned for Sedbergh playing fields near Odsal and Squire Lane in Toller are still scheduled to go ahead, alongside the closures of pools at Richard Dunn, Queensbury, and Bingley.

Bowling Pool, originally earmarked for closure, will now remain open.

The new leisure strategy was confirmed by council leader Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe ahead of the authority’s formal budget announcement later this month.

She said that the council’s net budget in real terms by 2020 would be half of what it was in 2010, with a further £100m of savings or income needed to balance the books over the next four years.

As well as highlighting a “tipping point” in government underfunding of social care, Cllr Hinchliffe said it was with a “heavy heart” the council was being forced to re-think its £40m investment in new leisure facilities.

She said: “Reluctantly, we have reached a difficult decision about our planned investment in four new swimming pools. We now have to scale back that plan. Inflation is increasing and the projected building costs are now higher than those originally forecast.

“Due to this tightening grip of austerity and rising costs we can no longer build new pools in the city centre or at Queensbury. They are simply no longer affordable at a time when we have such drastic pressure on all our essential services.

“This decision means that the council owns a well-located strategic site originally intended for the city centre pool.

“In the short-term, it is planned to use this land as car parking to gain some revenue. In the longer term its proximity to the station means that it is marketable for either transport or commercial use.”

Councillor Jeanette Sunderland, leader of the Liberal Democrat group on the council, said the business case for the city centre swimming pool had “never stacked up”.

She said: “When we can’t afford to get people out of bed in a morning, continuing with these fantasy projects was delusional.

“I’m pleased that the council leader has seen sense and put the brakes on it. But, I am concerned about the money that has already been spent on plans that were never going to come to fruition.”

Councillor Rebecca Poulsen, the authority’s conservative group spokesman for environment and sport, said: “We have said for more than two years that the millions needed for four new pools could have been better directed elsewhere, such as into education or social care, which are priorities for the district.

“Although I am sure some people will be disappointed, we just can’t afford four new pools, the plans were never viable.

“It is a pity to see the amount of money that has been wasted in getting to this stage.”

The Friends of Bingley Pool (FoBP) group said it would continue to look at ways of keeping the facility open, despite the announcement it will close once the Squire Lane project is completed.

The group had initially spoken to the council about taking over ownership of the pool via a Community Asset Transfer, but halted the plans when it was told the new sites would not be built until 2022.

In a statement, FoBP co-presidents Dr Jag Picknett and Anna Mdee said: “We will continue to work with the council to look at community asset transfer of Bingley Pool, with a view to keeping it running after the council withdraws funds.

“We will be in contact with the council about whether the announcement means a change in the timeline we were working to.

“We do not feel that the new complex at Squire Lane will serve the needs of all the population of Bingley and its surrounding area, and look forward to restarting negotiations off the back of this announcement.”

Councillor David Heseltine (Cons, Bingley) added: “Rather than spending millions of pounds on an unknown facility at Squire Lane, something which is essentially a vanity project, the money should be re-invested in extending the life of Bingley Pool.”

On the closure of Queensbury Pool and the abandonment of plans for a new facility, Councillor Paul Cromie (Ind, Queensbury) said: “It is absolutely disgraceful. We have been led down the garden path.

“People pay their rates and what services are they getting for it?

“They are cutting this, cutting that, and cutting the other. This is just another nail in Queensbury’s coffin.

“Queensbury Pool goes beyond leisure, kids learn lifesaving skills there and there are the health and fitness aspects.”

John Tempest, of the Bradford Soup Run, which has retained its base on the city centre Nelson Street site as the swimming pool plans have been developed, said: “Why are we not surprised that Bradford Council has spent £1m on buying a perfectly good building, knocking it down, then changing their mind and turning the space into a very expensive car park.

“We, and our many supporters, have been left in a state of limbo for two years, which is a perfectly good reason why we have as little to do with the council as possible.

"We will be carrying on - as we have done for the past 33 years - meeting the needs of Bradford's most vulnerable, and with the support of a caring Bradford public, for which we are most appreciative."