I AM astonished that in your report on the dispute between Selby Swimming Club and Selby District Council (Evening Press, November 11) that the club should state it is 'disgusted' by my comments on pool charges. The fact is that the District Council's Selby Swim Scheme charges £3.30 a lesson for adults and £2.40 for children.

The Swimming Club have been using the council's facilities for only £2 per adult and £1.10 for children. My statement to Tuesday's meeting of the Community Services Committee that their charges were 'substantially lower' than those required by Tadcaster Swimming Pool (£3.40 for adults, £2.75 for children) was entirely correct.

For years, Selby Swimming Club have been enjoying a massive double-subsidy from the taxpayers. Under the deal offered by the District Council, they will still be subsidised.

This is fair enough: I think the council should contribute towards swimming lessons. Tadcaster Pool, on the other hand, was built by public subscription, is staffed by dedicated volunteers and has not received a single penny in subsidies from the District Council.

Yet Tadcaster people pay as much council tax as those in Selby. The district council is merely trying to correct years of bias towards Selby and spread the taxpayers' money more evenly around the district as well as keeping the rate of council tax down.

Coun Dr David Wilson,

Labour, Tadcaster West,

Main Street,

Newton Kyme, Tadcaster.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.