Volunteers are collecting petition signatures urging Bradford Council to invest in, rather than close, the under-threat Bingley Pool.

It is one of four the Council is considering shutting as part of a major scheme to replace outdated pools with new facilities.

But residents in the town are strongly opposed to the plan and suggestions that they can use Keighley or Shipley’s pools, both about three miles away, instead.

Yesterday and today volunteers were in the town’s 5Rise shopping centre collecting signatures, parents have been taking more names at school gates and copies are also available in shops and the Arts Centre, with an online version on Bingley Civic Trust’s website.

Jag Picknett, who helped organise the petition, said her reaction to the plans was “utter shock.”

“The last thing that I’d heard, just on the grapevine, was that there were plans to refurbish it. Then on Wednesday morning, there was the announcement. The first we knew about it was in the Telegraph & Argus,” she said.

She said many people would be unable, or unwilling, to make a six-mile round trip to use other pools. “My initial thought was we need to stop this in its tracks first,” Mrs Picknett said.

“We want signatures in the thousands rather than hundreds.

“That might be asking too much, but not only is it a central building in our community, it’s an historical building in our community as well.”

Senior councillors will vote on officers’ recommendations to form a business case for the proposals, at an Executive meeting on Tuesday at City Hall.

Councillor Andrew Thornton, Bradford Council's executive member for the environment said: “The recommendations of the report are an outline business case based on a piece of work undertaken with Sport England which looks at where people live and where existing pools are located.

“The proposals also take due note of the condition of existing facilities to identify which need to be replaced. The objective of the review was to try to ensure that as far as possible, pools are located in places where they are accessible by as many of our residents as possible and to ensure that we have pools that are fit for purpose and economic to operate going forward.”

Vice chairman of Bingley Civic Trust Terry Brown said he hoped the petition would “create a meaningful response to the Council’s Executive meeting.”

It can be signed at www.bingleycivictrust.org/pool-petition. Last night there were 290 names on the online petition and 400 on the paper petitions.