CAMPAIGNERS opposing the demolition of Millom pool say residents have been blocked from speaking at a council meeting taking place today.

The issue is back on the council agenda after last month when councillors voted to call off the bulldozers for further legal advice.

It followed passionate pleas from a number of Millom residents at a meeting of the council’s development control and regulation committee.

The same committee meets in Kendal today and residents had hoped to address the panel.

But council officials have said they cannot address the committee for a second time on the same issue, say campaigners.

And a bid by five independent members of the public to speak in their place – has also been blocked on a technicality, campaigners say.

The council told them that needed to formally register to speak at the meeting within three days – although campaigners said they did not find out about the meeting until Friday.

A spokesperson for Save Millom Community Pool group said they were “hugely disappointed” by the set backs.

“Five people had wanted to speak and Cumbria County Council has refused to allow them to. We feel like we are fighting a losing battle and they are breaking their own rules,” the spokeswoman said.

“We have it on camera from a public meeting in June that the council said there would be no demolition for 12 months and a public consultation would be carried out – none of those have happened. It has all been lies.”

Staving off the bulldozers and getting the pool open again – even for a short time – is pivotal to the group who need to convince potential funders to invest in major new facilities.

At today’s meeting, two potential options are on the table – the committee could give the nod to officers to formally start the  process of the pool’s demolition. Alternatively, the 18-member committee of councillors could defer that decision to a later date, which could buy the group vital extra time.

They have argued the facility was neglected to make the case for closure, and that the repairs needed are not extensive as the council has said.

But in the report going before councillors, officers have refuted these claims. The report revealed the amount of money the council said was spent on maintenance works.

It shows that between 2013 and the pool’s closure in July 2017, a total of around £30,000 was spent.

Nearly half that figure – £14,425 was spent in the financial year 2013-14.

The council officer’s report said: “We do not have evidence to conclude the building is unsafe or otherwise uninhabitable.

"There is no evidence to indicate that any action or inaction by anyone with an interest in the land, ie the county council or Millom School, has rendered the building unsafe or otherwise uninhabitable.”

“I do not believe that the building itself has been rendered unsafe or otherwise uninhabitable by any action or inaction on the part of the applicant or the school.”

However, the campaigners say that the main roof is structurally sound and that a leak, and superficial defects found in the pool can be “readily treated”.