COUNCIL tax payers in Silsden could hold the answer to saving the town's threatened swimming pool.

Silsden Parish Council is looking into the possibility of collecting cash directly from villagers for the first time in its 26-year history.

The council is one of only a small number in the country which do not precept - that is get their money from the council tax.

Silsden's swimming pool is to be decommissioned next year unless thousands of pounds can be found to keep it running.

The precept idea is just one of those being mooted as a way of finding the cash, with 3,400 homes in the town eligible to pay council tax.

But parish councillors are to investigate whether the £6,000 annual grant paid by Bradford Council would be withdrawn if it decided to collect money from council tax payers.

The pool, in the grounds of Hothfield Street School, needs £5,000 spending on it urgently, plus £2,000 a year for chemicals to keep it running.

Parish councillors met last Thursday following an emergency meeting with school representatives about the pool's future.

They heard they could ask for a small sum of money to be added to the council tax for Silsden.

"The first thing we have to do is ask the school governors for permission to take the pool on," said Coun Chris Atkinson, one of those spearheading the campaign to keep it open.

"The school cannot afford £6,000 a year for a swimming teacher, but it already has the money to keep the pool in working order until next April.

"We should make sure that the pool remains an asset - by hook or by crook we have to keep it going."

Coun Atkinson added that he had been approached by Silsden folk willing to help with the campaign.

Coun Alan Edwards said it was important that a business plan was put together as quickly as possible.

"I think we've got to go to the governors with a clear plan of what we're going to do," he said.

Silsden's pool was built in the 1970s with contributions from the townsfolk to provide a safe place for children to learn to swim.

The pool, used by children at both Silsden schools, has suffered several financial problems over the past few years.

Parents were asked to contribute towards the cost of swimming lessons to try to make the annual budget go further.

Two years ago the Foundation for Sport and the Arts agreed to give a grant of £25,000 to build an extension with the proviso that the pool would remain open for the following 10 years.

However the money had to be handed back when a sewer pipe was discovered under the proposed extension site which would be too costly to move.