FANCY a dip?

York's Barbican Swimming Pool is still full of treated water - almost six months after being closed down by City of York Council.

But it's very much a case of water, water everywhere, but not a drop to swim in.

Where children once splashed happily and older swimmers used to plough up and down the swimming lanes, the baths stand still and silent, like a ghost pool.

Demolition workers are due to move in soon to clear the site to make way for a new hotel and apartments, with the money from the sale of the complex intended to pay for a new replacement pool just a short distance away, on the other side of Kent Street.

But the handover of the Barbican Centre site to the developers, due to take place on December 1, is still shrouded in uncertainty because of long-threatened legal action by campaign group, Save Our Barbican.

The group says it still intends applying to the High Court for a judicial review of the council's decision to grant planning permission for the scheme, despite delays in doing this so far. The council has warned that delays caused by a review could jeopardise the replacement pool scheme.

In the meantime, council leisure director Charlie Croft says it is better for health and safety reasons not to "pull the plug" on the old pools and let the water out, until the demolition is ready to start.

The pressure from the water helps prevent the sides of the pool disintegrating and tiles falling off, he says.

In the early days after the pool's closure, the water was being heated as well as treated, but Mr Croft said the heating had since stopped.

However, treatment was still continuing to prevent bacteria developing and creating a health risk for staff in other parts of the Barbican, where the UK Snooker Tournament is currently being staged. "We don't want an outbreak of legionnaire's disease" he said. SOB spokesman Ernie Dickinson said the pool and gym upstairs should have stayed open over the last six months, particularly in the light of technical problems which have closed Yearsley pool, leaving York with only one municipal pool open. The council has said it could not afford to keep the Barbican pool open beyond June.

Updated: 12:50 Saturday, November 20, 2004