Plans for an outdoor swimming pool which could be built in New Brighton suffered a major setback on Thursday night.

Wirral Council’s economy and development committee rejected a proposal to contribute the last £67,500 from an £80,000 sum the council had already pledged towards a feasibility study for the project.

The loss of the money is a blow to the scheme, especially given council officers confirmed that a bid for funding from at least one other fund has also been rejected.

New Brighton had an open-air swimming pool from June 13, 1934, when it was opened by Viscount Leverhulme, until 1990 when it was damaged beyond repair by a storm.

Many residents saw the end of the pool as a sign of the seaside resort’s decline.

Now, a community interest company (CIC) called Our Lido Ltd is working on plans for a new 50-metre, heated, year-round outdoor swimming pool known as the “People’s Pool” project.

New Brighton is thought to be the preferred location for the pool, although no decision has yet been made on this.

However, several councillors on the committee were sceptical about giving £67,500 to the scheme given the financial risk to the council at a time when money was so tight.

On Monday, the authority passed a budget which made £10m worth of cuts and put Council Tax up by 4.99% to address a shortfall.

In the end, the economy committee rejected the £67,500 support plan by six votes to four, with one Labour councillor joining three Conservatives, a Liberal Democrat and an Independent, outweighing the four Labour members in favour.

Instead, the committee said it would support the People’s Pool in principle, but cannot award the money at this time.

Last March, the authority’s cabinet approved the award of an £80,000 sum to Our Lido for feasibility studies.

But Sally Shah, Wirral Council’s chief regeneration officer, said circumstances had changed in the last 12 months due to the money the council has lost during the pandemic and the fact that a masterplan had been brought forward for New Brighton.

This meant that although £12,500 of the original sum had already been awarded, the committee’s approval would be required for the remaining £67,500.

Ms Shah said the remaining money was needed for Our Lido to progress with its design plans and crucially the extra money would help attract further support from other investors and ultimately deliver the pool.

In the case of the original £12,500, Wirral Council’s funding was matched by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (LCR).

Cllr David Burgess-Joyce, a Conservative, said something did not feel right about the funding proposal.

He thought it was “remarkable” that the council is being asked to pay for someone else to find out how they can make money given the current budget situation.

His Conservative colleague Cllr Andrew Gardner agreed, using the term “moral hazard”.

The Hoylake and Meols member said there was no hazard for the company involved if organisations like the council funded such studies and implied Our Lido might not take the same risk if their own money was on the line.

It was not just Tories who had concerns, Independent councillor Steve Hayes said there were environmental issues with the outdoor pool idea.

In his view, the cheapest, most energy efficient option was to use heat pumps to warm the pool up, but it would take years to get a return on investment if this approach was used.

He wondered if the funding could be delayed until more certainty was available over the plans.

On behalf of the council, Ms Shah said it was not unusual to put this level of feasibility funding into a project of this scale.

She said there were huge questions, such as choosing where to put the pool and how it would operate, to consider and money was needed for this.

On the issue of securing funding elsewhere, the regeneration officer said Our Lido had failed to secure support from Power to Change, a National Lottery community fund which supports community businesses.

Being a CIC, Ms Shah said Our Lido’s aim was to contribute “social value” rather than just making money as Cllr Burgess-Joyce appeared to suggest in his question.

Fellow council officer Keith Keeley said the pool would have significant benefits to New Brighton’s regeneration if it went forward.

Several Labour councillors supported these arguments and backed awarding the money.

Cllr Anita Leech said 90% of the public supported the lido plan in a consultation, with 74% strongly in favour.

Her Labour colleague Jean Stapleton said if delivered the pool would be a “jewel in the crown of New Brighton”.

Ultimately the £67,500 of feasibility funding was rejected.

Explaining her vote against the money, Labour’s Jo Bird said she welcomed another chance to approve the money being awarded to Our Lido once certain milestones had been reached such as the CIC applying to other agencies for financial support.

Summing up the views of Tories on the committee, Cllr Burgess-Joyce said he was “all for” the People’s Pool project in principle and did not want the Conservatives to be portrayed as “killjoys”.

But he thought the £67,500 sum was a gamble at this time and Our Lido should go away and try harder to find other investors.