SWIMMERS are being urged to swamp a council HQ with protest letters in a bid to safeguard the future of their pool.

The pool at Alsager Leisure Centre is used by numerous clubs and schools, as well as for therapy sessions.

It is run by Congleton Borough Council, which wants to hand over its operation to Alsager School.

The council wants to transfer responsibility for all its leisure centres to schools or trusts as part of plans to save £1.5 million.

But days after the plans were unveiled Alsager School headteacher David Black ruled out the possibility of his school running the leisure centre.

He told the council if it "abandoned" the centre the school would seek to keep open as many of its facilities as possible.

He stressed that the centre was able to run only because of a significant subsidy. If this was withdrawn the pool could close.

The possibility the pool could shut has been met with "horror" by locals who use it, including Shelagh Large.

Mrs Large is the centre's pool user representative, and attends centre management meetings in that role.

Swimming at the pool has played a crucial part in her recovery from a car accident in 1976 in which she suffered serious back and leg injuries.

Mrs Large, aged 57, uses the pool three or four times a week, and said it would "utterly devastate" her life if it closed.

She has launched a campaign to highlight the borough council's plans for the leisure centre and the potential threat they pose for the pool's future.

She has printed about 70 posters making people aware of the implications for the pool of the council's cost-cutting plans.

The posters are being displayed at shops across Alsager and Mrs Large also wants pool users to write heartfelt letters to council chief executive Glyn Chambers.

"I have rebuilt my life in that pool, and all those people who swim there regularly are horrified and utterly dismayed that it could close," said Mrs Large.

"I would like the council to be deluged with letters so it can't say no-one protested."

The council headquarters is at Westfields, Middlewich Road, Sandbach.