BADLY behaved children are said to be endangering the lives of others at a swimming pool and making them afraid to use it.

The difficult youngsters, mainly boys between 11 and 14, ignore pool staff and intimidate other swimmers at Guisborough pool.

Parents say they have heard the children swearing at staff and seen them pushing other youngsters off inflatables during fun in the pool sessions.

One parent, who did not wish to be named, said: "My son came to a fun session but now he's refusing to go back to the pool because of these other kids.

"They intimidate the other children and I saw them doing back flips in the shallow end. They could easily hurt another child."

A duty officer at Guisborough swimming pool, who did not wish to be named, said: "It's a growing problem with us and has been especially during the school holidays.

"The kids generally just don't take any notice of the lifeguards. It happens all the time during the Fun in the Pool sessions.

"When the lifeguards are trying to get the kids out of the pool they have to threaten them with phoning the police before they'll leave."

She said the children behaved much better at the Wednesday night session when children of all ages had to be accompanied by an adult, but pointed out that a lot of parents work and do not have the time to supervise their children at the pool.

"The lifeguards' prime concern is for everyone's safety but they've got to spend time watching these naughty ones.

"It's really sad because they don't realise that their behaviour is putting themselves at risk."

A spokesman for Tees Valley Leisure which runs the pool, said: "During the summer holidays we do get a lot of young people using the pool and on occasions some children get carried away.

"However, we have trained and dedicated lifeguards to deal with that.

"If there are issues with children who are considered to be more unruly than others, the pool staff will caution them and ask them to leave the pool.