A £4 MILLION swimming Pool and fitness centre will be built in Skipton after Sports England announced this week that it would pay for half of it.

The £2.2 million grant is the largest lottery award ever given in Craven and is one of the largest ever made in the Yorkshire region.

Craven District Council has spent over five years drawing up plans and bidding for money to build the new pool complex in Aireville Park, next to the current pool.

On hearing that the third lottery bid had been successful leader of the council Chris Knowles-Fitton said: "I am delighted. The whole process has taken longer than we thought but we can look forward to the day when we can offer the very best in swimming and health and fitness facilities for both residents and visitors.

"I am looking forward to seeing the site being developed in the spring."

Over recent years the council has faced many complaints from local residents and tourists about the state of Aireville Pool and its changing facilities.

In the past councillors have admitted that the pool has been allowed to fall in to disrepair and that they were reluctant to spend any money on it because of the impending lottery grant.

On numerous occasions the pool has had to be closed because of engineering problems.

Greg Robinson, the council's head of operations, said the authority's first bid was rejected in 1997 along with 17 others but Craven was one of the very few authorities to persevere with a scheme and this decision had finally been rewarded.

In March 2000 Sport England agreed in principle to grant funding for the new pool.

But it has taken two years' work by the council to amend designs and collate enough information on things like private partnership funding to persuade Sport England to approve the grant.

Mr Robinson said: "Any single award of over £2 million is regarded as huge by Sport England - and the fact that the scheme at Craven has been successful shows the value Sport England has placed on the scheme.

"Very few swimming pool schemes meet the criteria for award."

Sport England officers told the council that they were positive about the scheme and said it was definitely a coup for Craven.

They praised the close liaison between their officers and council officials over the period during which the scheme has developed and said this was a good example of partnership working.

The deputy leader of the Liberal Democratic group, Coun John Pilkington, said: "This is good news for Craven.

"This decision is welcome and bears testimony to the hard work of both councillors and officers over the past few years to achieve this result. It has been a hard slog."

There is still a considerable amount of work to do, but the lottery funding has been critical for the development of a new swimming pool and fitness facility.

It is hoped that building work will start next month.

The new pool will be constructed alongside the existing pool at Aireville Park which will remain open and continue to provide a service until the new one is built.

There will be a six-lane 25-metre pool with a moveable floor and a learner pool both with modern heating and pool water management systems.

The centre will also contain a new 35 work station fitness suite, steam room, sauna, 50 seater caf, and changing village, all with facilities for people who have disabilities.

The design brief emphasises the need to make the facility safe and accessible to everyone.

Leader of the Independent group Coun Carl Lis said: "This is brilliant, fantastic news. We can now get on with developing the scheme so we can continue to provide this key service to all the residents and visitors the area."