We meet the Friends of Otley Lido who are hoping to make a splash by breathing new life into a gem of the town as it marks its centenary year.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00The public reaction has been great and the support from the community has been great.
00:04It's just, it's challenging. The environment is challenging for the leisure sector.
00:08That's one of the key things at the moment.
00:10The outdoor baths in Otley opened in 1924, enjoyed by locals and visitors alike,
00:15before closing in 1993.
00:18In recent years, the Friends of Otley Lido have engaged with councils, businesses and locals
00:23to secure support for their vision to make a splash here once again.
00:27When we hit the funding target that we achieved, when we smashed the target that we had of £65,000,
00:34we then looked at the planning process in terms of what we need to do to take it up to planning
00:39and went out to tender and we engaged a leisure consultant
00:44with the advice of a retired leisure consultant who's been assisting us
00:48and that firm has also engaged other specialists to help take us up to the planning phase.
00:53We're looking to put master plans for the site and outline business plans together.
00:57The results should hopefully be available in a few weeks' time
01:00and then we'll have a much better idea of where we may be able to go.
01:03The team are continuing to collect memories and footage,
01:06which will form part of their Heritage Open Days event
01:09and following a summer of inspirational sport,
01:11it's hoped that the Lido could eventually be a training ground for champion swimmers of the future.
01:16This is an important year for us, particularly to get more community engagement,
01:20which is what we're doing on the weekend, get people down here
01:23and on that 100th year anniversary for them to be able to come back
01:26and get the memories and the history of what the site was like when it was up and running.
01:31We're currently in a situation where lots of pools are closing and are earmarked to close,
01:35not only because the stress is that councils are under financially,
01:39but they've all reached a certain age that they need repairing and they need investment.
01:44So as they close, we need new Lido's, we need new pools to open to replace those.
01:49Every single one of our Olympic swimmers started somewhere.
01:52They had a local pool that they started in,
01:54so our hope is that they'll be starting in Otlo Lido and then we'll see them in future Olympics to come.