THE urgent need for a new swimming Pool for Craven has been heightened by an architects' report revealing the sorry state of Skipton's Aireville Pool.

A catalogue of deterioration has been drawn up and presented to Craven District Council members, who have decided to build a new pool regardless of a second attempt at gaining Sports Lottery Fund cash.

The council's first bid for an ambitious £5million-plus sports centre, was turned down in October last year, so officers went back to the drawing board.

Now, if approved, the new bid will be based around a six-lane, 25-metre pool and a learner pool at a cost of around £1.9 million.

But should the second bid fail, a less ambitious and smaller scheme would be constructed, costing around £1.2 million, using Capital Challenge funding.

Any new facility would come as a breath of fresh air to users, particularly competitive swimmers who will be able to train in a regulation size 25-metre length, rather than the current random length of 33-metres.

Sports development officer Joanne Moss says youngsters training for the Millennium Youth Games will have to travel across to Harrogate to get used to the Amateur Swimming Association's regulation length.

A new pool for Craven might be on the horizon, but at a meeting of the community services committee councillors were shocked at a presentation given by architects Graham Lambert and Robinson.

Partner Malcolm Graham said: 'There is major structural cracking at the deep end of the pool. And 'concrete cancer' has set in because of the level of chloride which has seeped through.

'The roof is brittle and in a dangerous condition and there is rising damp in all the internal walls. The electrical system needs a total replacement as does the filtration plant. The pool pipework could fail at any time. When we saw the condition of the pipework we made a hasty retreat!'

At the meeting, Coun Tony Kennedy said: 'I visit the pool with children with learning disabilities and every week there is a problem. It's almost become uncontrollable. We must go for new-build.'

Rachel Mann, director of public services, said: 'The councillors have signed up to a strategy that will promise a new pool for Craven.

'If we fail to get the Sports Lottery bid again we would still provide a new pool but it might not be as big.

'Because of the strategy the members have agreed we should be able to start on site even without news of the bid, because the new pool will be modular in design, and can be added to at any stage.'

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.