Bath’s Cleveland Pools Trust has appointed a Project Director to develop its plans to help secure future Heritage Lottery funding for its unique Georgian lido.
He’s Christopher Heath and, over the next 18 months, he will be helping the Trust develop its proposals for a second round application to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to secure the grant monies necessary to implement the successful restoration of the pools site.
Christopher said….‘I am really delighted to be a part of this fantastic project working with and building on the immense achievement the Trust and its volunteers have made so far in securing a first phase grant from the HLF to develop the project.
This is going to be a very busy time as the Trust moves forwards to appoint a professional team of consultants to work up designs to sensitively restore the pools as a real community and heritage asset to Bath, securing the necessary planning and listed building consents. We will be developing a scheme that is sustainable and financially viable in the long term’.
Christopher, formerly the Conservation & Heritage officer for North Somerset Council, has worked on a range of successful heritage projects including in Bristol, the restoration of Queen Square, Arnos Vale Cemetery and a former Brew house at Kings Weston House.
He has also worked on projects to enhance visitor facilities at the Bishops Palace & Gardens in Wells, and contributed to planning a successful scheme to create a climate controlled document archive and improvement to song school facilities at Wells Cathedral.
FOR YOUR INFORMATION:
Cleveland Pools is a Grade II* listed Georgian Lido. It was last used in 1985 and subsequently fell into disrepair. After some years as a Trout Farm, the site went on the open market in 2004 but, instead of being sold, a Trust was formed and a campaign began to have it fully restored for swimming once more. Now ten years on, The Trust was awarded a development grant of £366,200 from the Heritage lottery Fund (HLF) in June 2014 to develop a scheme to restore the pools as a community swimming facility, interpreting its history and providing a small café for refreshments. It is intended to create a pontoon to enable access from the river.
The site is owned by Bath and North East Somerset Council who are supporting the Cleveland Pools Trust with a £200k grant to develop a successful restoration scheme, and eventual transfer of the site to them under a long lease. The Prince’s Regeneration Trust are also supporting the project through specialist advice, as are representatives from Bath & North East Somerset Council and English Heritage.
Initial estimates have put the cost of the final scheme at approximately £4.2m. Subject to a successful stage 2 application the HLF have earmarked £3,777,400 towards the final project.
The Trust is keen to hear from potential sponsors in a forthcoming fundraising campaign to raise approximately £360,000. The remaining fundraising target is £500,000. It is vital that the Trust raises this money to ensure the release of the earmarked funds from the HLF.
To aid the attainment of the target, a series of events to celebrate the bicentennial of the building and opening of the Pools in 1815-1817 is being planned and details will appear in the local press very soon.
For more information visit http://www.clevelandpools.org.uk
This is wonderful news!