AN independent Great Harwood politician has called for Hyndburn Council to keep the township's Mercer Hall swimming baths open.

The authority plans to shut the fitness hub as part of a £10million ‘leisure transformation’ scheme for the borough.

This would see a new pool at Wilsons Playing Fields in Clayton-le-Moors.

Now Overton's Cllr Pat McGinley has written to council leader Cllr Miles Parkinson, borough chief executive David Welsby and Hyndburn Leisure Trust boss Lyndsey Sims calling for a rethink.

His letter says: "I write, as one of many people in Great Harwood, who are objecting to the closure of Mercer Hall Swimming Baths.

"We can see no reason why a swimming pool is to be built in an isolated place in Clayton.

"Government guidelines used to state that 'swimming pools” should be built close to amenities such as doctors, libraries, shops, and houses'. Mercer Hall is the perfect place.

"Surely the £2.6 million which came from the building of houses on Lyndon Park, Great Harwood, should be being spent on Great Harwood baths and not on new ones in Clayton.

"We, in Great Harwood, feel we are not being listened to by Hyndburn Leisure or Hyndburn Borough Council."