When will Halifax swimming pool open: Fresh update from Calderdale Council on progress on Halifax's new pool and leisure centre

It says the tender to produce the final designs for the building has now been issued.

On its Calderdale Next Chapter website, it added: “A number of organisations responded with an expression of interest when the opportunity was shared with the market in August 2024.

"Those organisations have been invited to submit a tender response.

"The next stage will be the appointment of a contractor, and work to start on the final designs in 2025.”

The last update from the council on the project said construction was scheduled to begin early next year, with an opening expected in the summer of 2026.

Halifax has been without a swimming pool since 2020 when the Skircoat Road building shut at the start of the pandemic.

It never reopened, with Calderdale Council announcing instead a new pool and leisure centre would be built at the site of the also-now-shut North Bridge Leisure Centre.

The new pool project was paused for a year in 2022 as spiralling inflation sent the estimated cost up from around £28m to £31m, and then £35m.

Restarting it has involved a reassessment as to what the centre could offer with some elements, including a wellness suite, sauna and steam room, being dropped.

Funding for the project includes around £12m of Government Levelling Up money.

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