A GROUP campaigning to save their town's only pool have accused council bosses of "stalling".

Members of the Save Millom Pool group have hit out after being denied access to the pool, on Millom School grounds, following health and safety advice.

After crunch talks at a public meeting last month, members of the Save Millom Pool group believed an agreement had been reached to gain access to the pool to carry out their own survey.

A spokesman for the Save Millom Pool group, said: "We thought we were getting access next Friday but they say there has been some miscommunications and the meeting next Friday is to talk over their survey.

"We want access the pool with our own surveyor and our own builders.

"We believe the council's surveyors have over inflated their survey to shut down the pool.

"Trust needs to be earned and we feel there has been lots of descions taken behind closed doors.

"Unfortunately at this stage we do not trust the council and we think they are stalling.

"We have one goal: to get the pool reinstated to a standard that the public can use till we gain funding for a new swimming pool, and we will not stop until we have a guarantee that the solution will be sorted."

At the public meeting, held at the Beggar's Theatre on June 23, Michael Baker, senior programme manager at Cumbria County Council, announced the council would delay demolition due to take place this month.

The pool has been closed since last summer, and the campaign group dispute the costs of repair estimated by an independent survey for the council.

A Cumbria County Council spokesman said: "At the public meeting, we agreed not to demolish the pool over the summer to give time for the group to explore whether a plan for continued usage can be developed.

"We agreed to facilitate a meeting between our consultants and the group to explore why our costs for remediation are £240,000 and theirs is £17,000.

"We also agreed to see if a safe method of access can be arranged for the group to inspect the pool.

"Following advice from our health and safety team, this may not be possible, but will be discussed at the meeting."

The confusion over access was critisied by Mick Cummings, of the Save Millom Pool group.

He said: "It is absolutely ridiculous what they are doing.

"After the meeting we had it was agreed we would get access to the pool to view the damage and re-evaluate the price of repairs to see if it was feasible, compared to their really expensive proposal.

"This viewing was arranged for Friday July 13, but as it transpired, they will still not let us get access to the pool.

"We need to examine the issues that the county council's survey has identified."

Representatives from the council and the campaign group will hold further talks on Friday July 13 with Copeland MP Trudy Harrison.