The appeal from the Black Isle Swimming Pool Foundation comes following a local survey showing overwhelming support for the project, with 92 per cent of parents favouring the concept of paying £3 for each school swimming lesson.

As we revealed last week, a working group has recommended to the council's Education, Culture and Sport Committee that no new swimming pool provision is financially supported by the Council during the life of the next five-year capital plan.

The foundation has asked for £500,000 towards the £2.85million cost.

If the committee, which will discuss the matter at its meeting on November 13, approves the recommendation, then it will effectively stop the foundation from sourcing £1million of lottery money and cash from other sources.

The foundation believes the reason for the recommendation is not the amount of capital requested but the additional revenue funding needed to run the pool. However, the foundation says charging for the lessons would go a long way to addressing this.

Foundation chairman Stuart Edmond said, "The support for payment for the lessons is quite astonishing. It seems that Black Isle parents are prepared to make this sacrifice while continuing to subsidise the cost of swimming lessons for other Highland children outside the Black Isle through the taxes they pay."

In a letter to Graham Watson, the council's community development manager, Mr Edmond said the month-long community survey went a long way to answering the fear that the pool would be a big user of revenue funding.

"Additionally, the Working Group's decision may not have taken into account that our Business Plan envisages higher charges for the general public for swimming and other pool activities than those currently applied at other community and council pools in the area," explained Mr Edmond.

Insisting that the higher entry fee for Black Isle swimmers would still be cheaper than the cost of travelling to swim in the nearest existing pools he said. "We believe therefore that our estimates of income are realistic and that overall our call on 'new' annual revenue money would be modest."

Mr Edmond went on, "We strongly urge that the Education Culture and Sport Committee should agree to defer a decision to enable Council officials to meet the Foundation for detailed discussions about our estimates of income and expenditure and revenue support required."

Black Isle councillor Billy Barclay appealed to local authority officials to demonstrate more of a "can-do attitude" and claimed that "joined-up thinking" could see projected costs dramatically slashed.

He said, "Fortrose Academy has a poor heating system. Why not consider having a wood chip system that would service the school, the leisure centre and a pool? I believe officials need to get their act together from a business point of view."

Cromarty Community Councillor Jane Clunas, the council's pool spokeswoman, strongly backed Mr Edmond's plea.

She said, "We all feel that after all the time, effort and money that has gone into the pool project it should go ahead.

"I would urge the Education Culture and Sport Committee to reconsider its position. Highland Council paid £2,000 for a business plan on the pool to be done, what was the point of that if this is how they are going to react?"

Meanwhile, support for a swimming pool has surfaced from hundreds of miles away in Ipswich, Suffolk.

Sally Wainman, who lives in the city and campaigns for more swimming pools across the UK, hosts a website called Pooling Resources in which people can post messages of support for the campaign. A similar site has been started at www.swimclub.co.uk

Sally said, "If you don't put money into preventative health projects like swimming pools you will end up spending ten times that amount when you have to treat people who are obese and have heart attacks."

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