A campaigning nine-year-old girl has written a heartfelt letter to Bradford Council begging it not to close her beloved Bingley Pool.

Keen swimmer Freya Chamberlain goes to Bingley Pool twice a week, once with classmates at Eldwick Primary School and then on Saturday mornings for extra lessons.

She was horrified by plans to close the Victorian baths where she, her sister Anna and her mum April have all learned to swim.

And in beautifully-written pencil she urges decision makers: “Even though it’s a bit cronky and old, it’s still my pool and I think it’s amazing and all of the brilliant staff as well.

“So don’t close Bingley Pool because I love it.”

Grandmother Alice Brett lives beside Myrtle Park and told how Freya was shocked that the Council wants to shut the popular baths along with three Bradford pools – Richard Dunn, Queensbury and Bowling – which it claims are outdated and in the wrong places.

Four new ones would be built in Bradford but none in Bingley or the Aire Valley.

“She was outraged that ‘her’ pool could close without any hint of a replacement!” said Mrs Brett.

“Both my daughters learned to swim there and so have all of their four children, including Freya.

“She’s an extremely bright girl who recently won a writing competition run by the Grove bookshop in Ilkley and so she decided to write a letter to the Council.

“I’m very proud of her.”

Freya’s mum April, a solicitor in Skipton, said her daughter had “a very inquiring mind”.

“She’s a girl who notices things, thinks about them and then does something about it.”