YORK'S Barbican Pool is still being heated and treated - more than a week after it closed and swimmers were ejected to pave the way for redevelopment.

City of York Council says it is keeping water in the pool to protect it from short-term damage, until it has a decision from the Government on whether to call a public inquiry into the controversial plans to redevelop the whole Barbican Centre.

The water is being heated and chemically treated "at the lowest possible base level" to minimise potential problems caused by a build-up of algae and health risks to staff.

When the authority announced last month that the pool was to close early in June - despite calls for it to stay open until after the school summer holidays were over - leisure boss Charlie Croft said it was needed to allow time for decommissioning. The council also said the plant was at the end of its life and could fail at any time.

Mr Croft says now that demolition of the pool would be funded by the redevelopment scheme, and therefore cannot go ahead until the inquiry decision is known. However, he said decommissioning had started, with the removal of certain equipment.

He said it was necessary to keep water in or the pool sides would start to disintegrate because of the lack of water pressure - starting with tiles falling off.

It was important not to allow the pool area to become derelict, not least because it would pose health and safety risks to staff who still had to go there at times.

He denied there was any "secret plan" to reopen the pool, which could no longer be kept open to the public because trained lifeguard staff had been redeployed elsewhere.

The plant was still capable of providing low-level heating and treatment, and the cost of this would only be a small proportion of the annual £53,000 heating and lighting bill for the whole Barbican.

Asked if he understood the frustration that swimmers might feel, knowing that there was a heated and treated pool which they could not swim in, he said: "Of course. But what we need is a decision so we can get on with building a new community pool."

Ernie Dickinson, spokesman for the Save Our Barbican campaign, said today it would be instructing a solicitor to write to the council's chief executive, David Atkinson, to ask for an explanation, and also to ask again for the pool to reopen until the planning process has been completed.

He said members, who were now having to traipse across the city to other pools or miss out on their swimming altogether, were not just frustrated but "deeply hurt" by what was happening.

Updated: 10:04 Thursday, June 17, 2004