THE future of a town's swimming pool is looking bleak following a row over who should pay for a survey identifying what work needs to be done to keep it open.

Sedgefield Borough Council has been accused of misleading campaigners who are fighting to save Shildon's swimming pool.

Shildon Mayor Garry Huntington said that the borough council had promised to pay for an independent survey to assess what needed to be done to bring the pool back up to operational standard.

But the borough council is insisting this is not the case.

A meeting is being called between Shildon Town Council and the borough council to discuss the pool's future.

Councillor Huntington said: "At a meeting of Sedgefield Borough Council's cabinet, the leader promised that a survey would be carried out and paid for by the borough.

"Now, they are saying that was just a personal opinion expressed by the leader and not a decision that was taken by the council."

Coun Huntington said although the borough council had agreed to pay £14,000 a year towards the running costs, campaigners would still need the survey because they needed to know what they would be taking on.

He said: "They should have made things clear in the beginning. They are trying to drag this out until after the elections." The borough council took over the running of the pool after Durham County Council earmarked it for closure, but had always maintained it would not pay for the costly repairs.

Now a leak in the pool, which would cost about £10,000 to repair, has forced its closure until campaigners can come up with a plan to keep it up and running.

A spokesperson for the borough council said: "In January, Sedgefield Borough Council paid for an independent engineer to tell us what the cost of the problems would be and were informed it could be between £10,000 and £15,000.

"This information is available to Shildon Town Council and so too is a report from Durham County Council from two years ago.

"Should the town council wish to commission a further report they can do so, but not at a cost to the borough council."