DOUBTS have resurfaced over the future of a popular hydrotherapy pool amid claims and counter claims by political groups on Cumbria County Council.

Conservatives accused the Labour-controlled council of "abrogating its responsibilities" over the pool at Sandgate School, Kendal, which offers therapeutic swimming sessions to hundreds of disabled and disadvantaged people each week.

Coun Tim Stoddard (Con) claimed the council was trying to shut down the pool by "strangulation" and he added: "Labour is acting shabbily in not funding Sandgate pool properly."

Speaking at a council meeting in Kendal, Coun Stoddard said if efforts to set up a charitable trust to take charge of the day-to-day running failed, "then presumably Sandgate pool will close."

But Coun John Ladell (Lib Dem) said he understood a solution to the future management of the pool was now in sight.

He criticised the Tories for trying to make political capital out of the issue.

Afterwards, Labour education spokesman and Kendal Strickland and Fell councillor Dave Clarke (Lab) insisted his group was "fully committed" to securing the future of the Sandgate pool.

He said the council had allocated "more than enough" money, through the South Lakeland area committee, to keep the pool afloat.

"If other groups try to reopen the argument over which part of the council funds the pool, it will be a blatant attempt to undermine confidence in the county council's commitment," he added.

Despite the political squabble, Sandgate pool users remain hopeful the pool will remain open.

Former Westmorland MENCAP chairman Pat Allen, who chairs the pool consultative group, said: "We hope there will be a solution and that Cumbria will honour its commitment, made when the pool was handed over to the council in 1976, that they will continue to provide a suitable facility at Sandgate.

"We want to safeguard the rights of people with disabilities to have a suitable therapeutic environment so that they can continue to benefit from it.

It's a facility used by many hundreds of people each week who rely on it to maintain their independence and mobility," she said.

The running of the pool has been in doubt since the governors of Sandgate Special School declared the facility as surplus to their requirements.

It has been controlled by the county council, which is now seeking another operator - probably a charitable trust - to run it under contract.