From Safety to Vanity: How £25K Was Quietly Diverted from School Pool Repairs
- HBC Exposed
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
Questions raised as Hartlepool Borough Council bypasses democracy to approve a funding switch that directly benefits a sitting Labour councillor’s commercial interests.
21st May 2025
In yet another behind-closed-doors decision by a local Extremist Group. Hartlepool Borough Council has reportedly reshuffled £25,000 pounds worth of public funding –originally earmarked for essential safety upgrades to a local swimming pool– to cover something entirely different: a changing room refurbishment that didn’t even make the councils priority list two months ago.
Its said that back in March 2025, Hartlepool Borough Councils Children’s Services Committee approved a Schools Capital Works Programme for 2025–26. One of the key projects on that list was said to have been the replacement of a filtration system for the Hydrotherapy Pool at High Tunstall College of Science (HTCS) – a valuable facility in the town, especially for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
The changing rooms, described as in a “poor state of repair,” were reportedly not approved for funding at that time. That is, until a curious offer just happened to have landed on the Council's desk shortly afterwards.
Water Babies – Tees Valley, is a private business that’s been operating from the HTCS hydrotherapy pool for over 15 years. The business reportedly offered to part-fund the filtration system – at a lower cost than HBC’s previous quote – on the condition that the Council then reallocates the original £25,000 budget to do up the neglected changing rooms, however its claimed The owner of Water Babies – Tees Valley is none other than Labour Councillor Pamela Hargreaves, the wife to Labour MP Jonathan Brash, sparking claims of a major conflict of interest, with the private funder of this supposed goodwill gesture a sitting councillor with a declared financial interest in the facility and a commercial agreement to use the facility outside school hours.
The moves raised some serious questions over transparency at the local council which in 2023 was declared an authority of no public confidence, with the agreement to proceed with the proposals being signed by the councils Managing Director, who herself is facing increased calls to stand down from the role over claims employees are losing confidence in her leadership of the 'troubled' local council, with many critical of the seemingly behind closed doors agreement questionign why public funds are now being used to renovate some changing rooms that weren’t even approved by elected councillors just months ago, seemingly to satisfy the conditions of a private operator, with Hartlepool Borough Council having a nasty habit of shuffling public money around with minimal transparency, often for the benefit of its own insiders.
Whether it’s secret lease agreements, questionable regeneration deals, or, now, school pool renovations – the pattern's said to be abundantly clear: those with connections to HBC win, and the local taxpayer’s left soaking wet & having to foot the bill...
