PLANS to cut opening hours at two West Devon swimming pools seem set to go ahead — despite criticism of the consultation process and doubts over user statistics.

Members of West Devon Borough Council's environment and community committee this week heard there had been complaints over the plans —further discussions will now be instigated with Leisure Connections to see if there is room to modify proposals.

The move, to start morning sessions at Meadowlands in Tavistock and Parklands in Okehampton at 8am instead of 7am on weekdays, cutting a session on Saturdays and starting an hour later on Sundays, is set to take place from April 1. It has caused uproar among regular swimmers affected by the change.

Councillors at the meeting were concerned at the lack of adequate consultation and communication with pool users before the motion was carried in January.

Leisure and recreation officer at the borough, Jon Parkinson, said: 'Not surprisingly we've had negative feedback from users.

'There have been 12 direct complaints from Meadowlands and nine from Parklands. There seems to have been a lack of direct consultation and a lack of communication.'

The cut to opening hours is expected to save the borough council £20,000 a year.

Councillors raised concerns about the accuracy of user numbers at the pools, due to members not always using their swipe cards.

Cllr Christine Marsh said: 'The numbers are incorrect — there are a lot more swimmers. There is a steady stream between 7am and 8am and they are up in arms.

'They are likely to cancel their membership and find somewhere else to swim.'

But Mr Parkinson assured members that the usage figures were correct as lifeguards had been doing a subsequent count of how many people were using the facilities.

Cllr David Cloke said: 'Obviously we have not been given correct information.

'We need people to know we were acting in good faith from information from Leisure Connections.'

Nick Payne, the borough's head of environmental services, said: 'Since the decision, it has become apparent that the consultation was with user groups and not users of particular times of the day.

'We are continuing discussions with Leisure Connections but the bottom line is we have made a budgetary decision that we have to stick with. We're not going to find £20,000 elsewhere in the committee's budget.'

Cllr Terry Pearce said the public did not realise how much they were going to be affected by cuts.

He said: 'If you look at how many people were using the pools and only nine and 12 people complained, that's not bad if it's saving us £20,000.'

Chairman of the committee Cllr Robert Sampson said: 'Two issues have come out of this meeting. There does seem to be some question about the accuracy of numbers and secondly, clearly consultation has been less than adequate.'

The committee agreed that discussions should continue with Leisure Connections, but it was agreed that the chairman, Cllr Sampson, and the vice chairman, Cllr Nick Morgan, jointly with the corporate director, would be given the authority to agree any modifications to the opening hours of both centres, provided the changes remain within the budget.