A HUGE gap in funding for a new public swimming pool sited at the University of York is no nearer to being plugged, eight months after the gap was first revealed.

Fresh analysis of the situation surrounding the pool at the Heslington campus has revealed a shortfall of £4 million continues to dog the project.

The university and City of York Council are now looking into “different funding arrangements”, including private sector investment, but admit the concentration of national sporting cash on the 2012 Olympics could hamper this.

The Press revealed last June the pool – the estimated cost of which is £11 million – could be as far as 25 years away from completion because planning chiefs did not set a deadline for it to be delivered, although the authority’s assistant director of lifelong learning and culture, Charlie Croft, has previously said this was “a worst-case scenario”.

The university has earmarked £5 million for the scheme, with the council adding £2 million, but a report going before the authority’s audit and governance committee next week says it has yet to enter into a “binding legal agreement” over developing the planned 12-lane, 25-metre pool and sports facilities.

“It was originally envisaged the pool would be completed in 2011,” said Mr Croft in the report.

“However, alongside the first phases of developing the new campus at Heslington East, the university has had to expand its capital programme to take on additional projects. This has caused it to draw more heavily upon capital borrowing than had been expected.

“In these circumstances, the university has been forced to reprioritise its capital planning. A completion date of 2011 is contingent upon the business plan providing financial balance.”

Mr Croft also said other funding arrangements, such as through a joint venture company, could allow “more cost-effective borrowing” and the possibility of attracting private sector finance was also being considered.

But he warned securing outside funding could be “problematic at a time when the run-up to the 2012 Games is dominating the priorities for sports funding”, and that there was currently “no agreed programme” for the development.