THE drawn-out saga over a Stanley's swimming pool has prompted the town's MP to demand answers from National Lottery bosses.

North Durham MP Kevan Jones has passed on the frustrations of Stanley residents over the four-year wrangle over plans for a new 25-metre pool in the town.

Derwentside district councillors are still confident they will secure millions of pounds needed from the Lottery after Sports England approved the scheme in principle earlier this year.

The pool will be built at the Louisa Centre if Lottery agents agree the tenders from at least one of the four contractors are within council costings.

The council first applied for funding in 1997 but have been turned down three times.

After the agent's board failed to reach a decision at a Lottery Panel last month, Mr Jones wrote to them, demandingd an explanation as to why the scheme was not considered at the recent meeting.

A Sports England spokeswoman said: "The application from the council was discussed at the last panel meeting, but a decision had to be deferred due to financial constraints.

"It will be discussed at our next meeting on August 20 and because it is for a large award it will have to go to our next tier of decision-making, the committee.

"Therefore a decision could be ratified by the beginning of September. We understand this might be frustrating for the council and the people of Stanley but we can assure them it will be top of our agenda at our next panel meeting.