A MAJOR swimming club in Worcester has hit out over shelving the city’s top-class pool dream - decrying it as a “missed opportunity for a whole generation”.

Worcester Swimming Club says it has been left disappointed after the city council revealed it is scrapping an eight-lane option due to a lack of funds.

Worcester’s finance chief, meanwhile, has backed the move by saying the city cannot afford to end up with a “liability”.

Your Worcester News revealed yesterday how the council is axeing proposals for a competition standard £13.5m pool at Perdiswell in favour of pursuing a scaled-down six-lane facility.

And even that will only go ahead if bosses can strike a deal for a supermarket on the same site, leading to fears it could be scrapped completely at a later date.

Adele Rimell, chairman of the swimming club said: “The council says it’s done a consultation which shows a swimming pool is at the bottom of people’s priorities, but it’s too early to take this decision.

“This is a missed opportunity for a whole generation, it’s the first time in 40 years we are looking at a new pool.

“The existing pool is not big enough for the needs of the swimming community, so it’s a real shame to take a step back.

"We are quite disappointed.”

But Councillor Richard Boorn, the council’s cabinet member for finance, said: “We are not saying the whole pool project is dead in the water, but what we are saying is that it must be funded from ‘enabling development’. “

"By doing this we are taking a decision which will save us £300,000 a year (for the next 40 years under a hefty loan).

“It was always going to be a risk and if we built the eight-lane pool and income from it falls, it could end up more than a liability - we’d have to find even more than £300,000 a year to keep it going.

“You need to look at it sensibly - if this was a private company we’re talking about, you just wouldn’t take that risk.

“If you were a shareholder and the boss tried it, you’d bounce them down the road.

"We are trying to do the right thing by taxpayers and be straight with people.”

A six-lane pool would cost £10.7m, and there is hope a bid to Sport England for £2m would fund some of it.

If it does get built, with the current timetable aiming for early 2016, the current Perdiswell leisure centre would then be demolished.

The pool in Sansome Walk would also close, with that land sold off for development to help fund the new facility.