A BUSINESSWOMAN'S plans for a swimming pool at her health club are in tatters after experts discovered a stream running below her business.

Natasha Newell opened Aqua Tone Studio, a women-only health centre in Mill Street, Great Harwood, in June.

And after gaining planning permission for the £100,000 venture and setting up a gym, sauna, exercise studio and tanning beds she was set to install a state-of-the-art swimming pool.

But as she began to install the £15,000 pool, structural engineers discovered the small stream, which runs into the nearby Harwood Brook, and halted the development.

Environment Agency officers have now said that the development should not go ahead because the weight of the pool would have a damaging affect to the stream below.

Ms Newell, 35, a mum-of-three from Grasmere Close, Rishton, said the discovery has been "devastating".

She said: "It is a problem that I am finding hard to deal with. I have invested a lot of money in this business and it looks like I am going to have to throw in the towel and look for a new site.

"If I don't get the pool up and running I'm going to go bankrupt."

The new health studio was given planning permission by Hyndburn Council in June. At the time the problems of the underground stream were not discovered.

She has the shop on a three-year lease and said she has spent £70,000 on equipment and improvements. Since the problems were discovered a further £7,000 has been spent on surveys and expert inspections.

Now Ms Newell, a former swimming instructor at the Dunkenhalgh Hotel, Clayton-le-Moors, said she was looking for new premises to locate the swimming pool.

The pool, which measures six metres by three metres and is 1.5metres deep, can either be sunk in the floor or left standing.

Because the underground stream is just three metres below ground level it is thought too dangerous by the Environment Agency to be put in place.

A spokesman for Hyndburn Borough Council said: "The situation is now in the hands of the Environment Agency."

A spokesperson for the Environment Agency said: "Anyone wanting to carry out works within eight metres of a main river watercourse such as Harwood Brook must first obtain written consent from the Environment Agency.

"We have looked into the issue and offered advice to the effect that if they want to carry out the works the existing culvert would need to be replaced.

"The culvert which runs beneath the premises is very old and we have no way of knowing what condition it is in.

"It is bad practice to build over culverted watercourses because of the potential risk of collapse and resulting flooding this could cause."