Campaigners fight to keep Bradford children's activity centre open

Ingleborough Hall is facing closure as Bradford Council desperately tries to save money

Campaigners have made a last-ditch plea to save a council-run children's outdoor activity centre from closure.

Ingleborough Hall, in the Yorkshire Dales, is earmarked to shut as part of Bradford Council's cost-cutting drive.

Ahead of a council budget meeting later, former head teacher Julia Britton asked the authority to consider signing the centre over to a trust.

The council said it regretted the proposed closure but was operating in "very constrained times".

Ingleborough Hall hosts trips for at least 80 schools a year, offering activities such as caving, archery and abseiling.

However, the council announced its intention to sell the site as part of efforts to plug a £40m shortfall.

Councillors will meet later to vote on a raft of cost-cutting measures, which include cutting more than 100 jobs and the closure of facilities such as Ingleborough Hall and three tips.

Campaigners are asking the council to reconsider and allow it to become a community-based charity

Ms Britton said she was aware the authority had "some very big decisions to make" but said that with 40% of Bradford children living in poverty it would be "nonsensical" to shut the centre.

"Schools have been taking their pupils to Ingleborough for many years," she said

"It's a beautiful, beautiful place, a fantastic building and facilities.

"For children who don't excel in the classroom, going to somewhere like Ingleborough Hall and having the freedom to do something entirely different, to find that resilience, for some children it's life changing - and it can be life-making."

She said she hoped the council would consider handing it over to a charitable trust or seeing if a multi-academy trust could "step in to take it on".

She cited the example of Nell Bank, another formerly council-run children's activity centre in Ilkley which was transferred to a community-run charity in 2022.

At a previous meeting, the council's decision-making cabinet was told the estimated repair bill to bring Ingleborough Hall up to standard was £2.9m.

Ms Hinchcliffe, speaking ahead of tonight's meeting, said the council's cuts plans made for "grim reading".

She said: "We don't like doing this either, but these are very constrained times and we are in a position where we have to cut things that people enjoy using."