£25,000 bid could help restoration

37,875 votes were cast, both in Otley and Wharfedale, as well as the wider area, for the Friends of Otley Lido project to receive the funding from the Aviva Community Fund, to restore the pool in Wharfemeadows Park. A total of 602 organisations put forward a bid in the Heath and Wellness category and, while the announcement of the category finalists was made this week, the final round of voting won’t take place until the new year.

“We’re absolutely delighted,” said Leonie Sharp, chair of Friends of Otley Lido.

“The committee worked incredibly hard and had such fabulous backing from our supporters and the wider community. To achieve almost 40 thousand votes is incredible and we’d like to thank everyone who did their bit.”

The group will now have to demonstrate how its project, to restore the local Lido, meets the final set of criteria, in order to be awarded the £25,000.

“It was a hard run contest,” Leonie added.

“We were so excited to realise that we came first in the whole of the UK in our category in the popular vote. This just demonstrates how important the restoration of our outdoor pool is to our community when so many people rallied around to get the vote out. We are sure we’ll be able to demonstrate we meet each of the necessary categories for receiving funding. We’ve had such fabulous responses from the community with their memories on why restoring the pool is so important to them.”

Visit community-fund.aviva.co.uk/voting for further details on the project.