THE spotlight has this week fallen on the future of swimming facilities in Tavistock, with concerns that taxpayers' money could be spent on a private school pool.

Fears have been mounting that the council-owned Meadowlands fun pool in Tavistock, which is a drain on the public purse, could close if the borough council spends its leisure budget on upgrading facilities at Kelly College.

But leader of the council Philip Sanders said this week that although options were being considered about the future of swimming provision in Tavistock, 'it was a nonsense' that the council would just hand over money to Kelly College.

Members of the public have been contacting the Times following an article on March 13. This reported on a meeting of the borough council's community services committee, concerning the impact the 50m Olympic legacy pool planned for Kelly could have on Meadowlands. Members also discussed whether the council should have a financial stake in the college's swimming facilities, which include a 25m pool that may have additional community use in the future.

Kelly College has been fundraising to reach the £3.2-million target to install the 50m training pool, a project backed by Sport England with the aim of improving 'performance swimming' in the area.

Sue Dunstan of Tavistock has been involved in Meadowlands since it opened in June 1990. She is chairperson of the pool user committee and a founder member of Tavistock Swimming Club.

She felt any move by the council to use public money to possibly enhance swimming facilities at Kelly College would be hugely unpopular, irrespective of the effect of the impact it would have on Meadowlands — 'our pool'.

'There is no comparison between the multi-functional facilities at Meadowlands and anything that Kelly pools could offer,' she said.

'With a small shallow pool, level depth main pool and slides available, the facilities offer opportunities for mother and toddler groups, Swim School children's lessons, adult learners, adult lessons, school lessons, adult lane swimming, Tavistock Swimming Club training, disability users and their carers, Aqua-fit ladies, 50+, wet and wild fun sessions, water polo, general use and recreation.'

She said the central location in the town was convenient to the bus station, the park and the car park and the cafe offered refreshments and comfortable pool viewing.

'Meadowlands is highly valued by by all its diverse users,' she said. 'Sport England is committed to supporting the delivery of this "community" project to Kelly College. I wonder if it also appreciates the effect it could have on the "actual community" who, as a result, may lose their pool and have, so far, only been consulted on a limited basis.'

Jacky Rushell, who runs Aqua-fit, said: 'We are not against the Kelly pool per se but we know many of the user groups would not be able to use Kelly as a community pool for many practical reasons. For us the position out of town, depth and warmth of pool for older users, and changing facilities are not brilliant.'

She said to close Meadowlands and leave the site would be 'a waste of money' which would be better spent on upgrading and keeping the facility.

Other residents said with the Plymouth Pavilions fun pool no longer in existence, Meadowlands was the only similar pool around for families.

Leader of West Devon Borough Council Philip Sanders said various options were being looked at to see how the council might address swimming facilities in Tavistock.

'There will be a whole range of options and these will be subject to a public consultation and will require a decision by the full council,' he said.

'Quite clearly it would not be an option for a public body to put money into a private enterprise. We would not just hand money over to Kelly College for them to have a pool — it's a nonsense. There is no way we would fund a pool that was not available to the public.

'No decision has been made behind closed doors and no decision will be made until we have had a public consultation.'

He said the council had a problem with the long-term funding of Meadowlands and it was untrue to say that Meadowlands was making a profit.

'There are many inaccuracies in the emails I have received from people concerned about the future of Meadowlands,' he said. 'The pool is being heavily subsidised by the public purse at the moment.'

Cllr Sanders said revenue support of around £150,000 was needed each year just to keep the pool going.

'The fact is that a lot of the equipment needs to be replaced in the near future but we have no capital costs to do that.

'We cannot make any changes regarding the running of Meadowlands until the management contract runs out in 2016 but we have to consider now what happens after that date.'

He said there were a number of ways in which the council could deal with the problem: 'They range from shutting Meadowlands which I don't think anyone wants, to finding alternatives, and finding funding to, for example, run the pool as a community interest company.

'We cannot delay in considering what we do because the process of consulting and making changes takes a long time.'

Cllr Sanders said the council would be issuing a statement later this week addressing the many questions posed by members of the public over the future of Meadowlands.

A spokesperson for Kelly College confirmed that no official application had been made to West Devon Council for funds towards the pool project and although there were options for a community user agreement if the council so wished, the authority had not applied for this.

He said the college was duty bound to engage with the council and other groups like Active Devon as part of the project.

He said the costs of the 50m pool scheme had not been finalised as there was a possibility that the facility could be installed at a site other than the Kelly College campus.

'With the recent merger between Kelly and Mount House School there are a lot of things under discussion at this time,' he said.

'We understand the growing debate in regard to provision of swimming for the community but we cannot comment on the issues surrounding West Devon Council's use of Meadowlands pool or wider council matters.'­