Progress on project for pool and ice arena

Coun Terry Geraghty wants to see the facility built in the city centre, on the site of Bond Street car park, which is owned by the council.

Mitch Upfold, city manager for sports, leisure and heritage, said: “There’s a significant commitment from the council to making this happen.

“We need to go through a feasibility study bringing in expertise and reporting back to the Cabinet as soon as we can with a decision later this year.

“All things being equal we’d like to be in a position to have it up and running for the City of Culture year.”

The study will look at the size of the pool, with some backing a 50-metre Olympic-size international pool and others favouring 25 metres.

The cash-strapped authority is making 450 redundancies and had £48m savings to find over the next two years.

But Mr Upfold said they would be able to pay for the loan to build it through savings in running costs, with the energy from refrigerating the ice going into heating the water.

“All the brainstorming we have done makes it look feasible,” he said.

Thousands joined campaigns and signed petitions last year after plans were aired to close Ennerdale swimming pool.

It was saved for a year by an NHS cash injection.

Coun Geraghty said no swimming pools in Hull would close until the new building is up and running.

He said: “People have to understand we are building a facility which we hope will be here for the next 20 to 30 years and which people not even born yet will enjoy.

“We have set up a feasibility study so they can report back to us as soon as they can whether it will be 25m or 50m.”