A TOWN'S swimming pool has been given a reprieve after a council agreed to think again about its closure.

Councillors at Sedgefield Borough Council have been persuaded to rethink their decision to close Shildon's only swimming pool.

The turnaround comes after a meeting of the council's Scrutiny Committee 2 on Wednesday.

Councillor Gareth Howe, who represents the town on the committee, said that he felt the future of the pool needed to be discussed further before a final decision was made.

He said: "When I received the minutes of the last cabinet meeting it said that low-key decisions had been made.

"I pointed out that the closure of a town's facility is a key decision and therefore should be referred back to the cabinet for further discussion."

Campaigners have vowed to fight the unexpected decision to close the pool by Sedgefield Borough Council's Cabinet.

Members of the cabinet decided that it would no longer be economically viable to keep the facility open after finding that the pool had developed a leak.

It was felt that the budget would not stretch to the £10,000 needed for repairs.

Councillor John Quigley, treasurer of the Friends of Shildon Community Pool, said that the decision came as a shock because the pool's committee had already started to apply for grants to make improvements to the pool.

It is hoped that the referral from the committee will give the 'friends' and people in the community time to come up with a plan to keep it running.

Coun Howe said: "We need as much support as possible to give the pool a fighting chance and hopefully this stay of execution will buy us some time."

Phil Ball, head of leisure at the borough council, said that the pool had been drained because of the leak and had been closed since January 11.

He said repairs could not be carried out until a decision was made.

He said: "The pool is still closed to the public at the moment, and until the cabinet considers the outcome of the scrutiny meeting, it will remain closed."