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05
Dec
Town council to apply to make Starbeck Baths an Asset of Community Value
Harrogate Town Council has voted to apply to have Starbeck Swimming Pool registered as an Asset of Community Value.
At the council’s last full meeting of the year, Cllr Chrissie Holmes (Lib Dem, Starbeck) proposed making the move to protect the baths from any possible future redevelopment.
She said:
Starbeck swimming pool is one of two main public leisure facilities in Starbeck, the other being Starbeck bowling green. We should try to protect leisure facilities of this kind that bring so many health benefits to so many people.
The decision was almost unanimous, being carried with just two abstentions. One member who did not vote for it was Cllr Michael Harrison (Con, Saltergate). Pointing out that North Yorkshire Council had recently approved its strategy for the region’s leisure services, he said:
If there were plans to close the pool, that would have formed part of the strategy, but it didn’t – so there are no plans to close it.
But concerns have been raised locally about the facility's future, as North Yorkshire Council looks to make £34 million of cuts.
Its finance chief, Cllr Gareth Dadd, warned over the summer that the authority's budget for 2026/27 would be the most severe it had ever faced, and the most likely candidates for cuts are reportedly leisure services, libraries and museums, as they are discretionary services that the council is not obliged to provide.
At last night's meeting, Cllr Monika Slater said that without the pool being registered as an ACV, North Yorkshire Council would not have to give any warning before selling it off to a private developer.
Once a building has been listed as an ACV, the owner may not dispose of it without letting the local authority know that they intend to do so.
In the case of Starbeck Baths, the owner and the local authority are both North Yorkshire Council, so technically it would have to give notice of its intention to itself, but that does have the effect of making the move public.
An ACV listing also gives community groups up to six months to put together a bid and financing to buy the facility on the open market, although it would not necessarily get first refusal, and the owner does not have to sell it to them.
Starbeck Baths was originally called the Prince of Wales Baths and was built in 1870 following the discovery of a sulphur spring there.
The facility has periodically been threatened with redevelopment and even demolition, but has been saved each time by local community campaigns.
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