The Cleveland Pools Trust has received a Capital Kickstart Fund award from the Government of £290,000 to help the continuation of their restoration project, which was delayed due to the pandemic.
Photo © Cleveland Pools
The money, awarded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund on behalf of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, is part of more than £1 billion of grants made available through the Culture Recovery Fund.
The Cleveland Pools Trust is just one of twenty-two heritage organisations that will benefit from £13.5 million in targeted grants allocated by the National Lottery Heritage Fund to restart planned work that now face delays or increased costs due to the pandemic.
The funding will be used to support the additional costs the Cleveland Pools restoration project has faced.
Paul Simons, Chair of the Cleveland Pools Trust, said: “Many heritage projects have suffered from delay and complications during the last year of unprecedented conditions.
“Cleveland Pools is no different and as we reach the culmination of 17 years of community effort to restore the Pools for public swimming we are delighted to have been granted additional support from the DCMS Capital Kickstart Fund.
“Government has rightly recognised the value of the cultural heritage sector to national recovery and Cleveland Pools will play its role in saving this unique piece of our history whilst enabling swimming to take place in Britain’s earliest and only Georgian lido.
“We also remain most grateful to the support received from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Historic England and Bath & North East Somerset.”
Anna Baker, Project Director at the Cleveland Pools Trust, added: “With the additional funding from Capital Kickstart we are now able to enter into contract for the restoration of the Pools beginning next month.
“This long-awaited milestone will guarantee the Pools are brought back into use for the community of Bath & North East Somerset in 2022.
“Whilst costs have inevitably risen as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic we have continued to raise additional funds to meet this challenge.
“Over the next 18 months the project needs to raise an additional £400,000 to guarantee the delivery of all project objectives, including the innovative water source heat pump in the adjacent river Avon, a low carbon technology which will produce 100% of the heat for the pool.”
Oliver Dowden, the Culture Secretary, said: “From restoring Georgian lidos and Roman baths to saving local screens and synagogues, our Culture Recovery Fund is helping to save the places people can’t wait to get back to, when it is safe to do so.
“All over the country, this funding is protecting the venues that have shaped our history and make us proud of our communities, whilst safeguarding the livelihoods of the people that work in them.”
