MORE than £1million is needed to keep Haslingden Pool afloat over the next five years, campaigners have been told.

Council bosses in Rossendale undertook a survey of their buildings stock and found they needed £3.3million of repairs or maintenance before 2017.

But one of the principal cases is the East Bank Avenue baths - which requires an annual investment of £286,000 over four years.

Pool campaigner Edith Freeman questioned whether the Haslingden site was on the council’s priority list for repairs, as this would affect the level of investment and whether the building remained serviceable.

Council leader Coun Alyson Barnes said: “The investment required for Haslingden Pool has been indicated on the primary locations and has been spread evenly at £286,000 per annum over four years from 2013-17.”

Urgent repairs and maintenance issues had been addressed at the pool this year already, she added, so no allocation had been identified for the next 12 months.

Coun Barnes, whose Labour administration took over from Conservatives last May, said that the condition of the buildings should have been assessed as part of a rolling programme before now.

Swimming enthusiasts were outraged last year when the borough council opted to demolish and redevelop Rawtenstall’s Valley Centre and sidelined proposals to build a replacement pool beside Haslingden Leisure Centre.

Last September the Lancashire Telegraph also revealed that the building had ‘concrete cancer’. The petition over the pool attracted more than 8,000 signatures.