AN ONLINE petition against proposed funding cuts to a training programme for Bradford's top young swimmers has already gathered 750 signatures.

The Bradford Council development scheme is under threat in its current form due to budget cuts, and the authority has been in discussion with members of the clubs affected.

Now the City of Bradford Swimming Club, which is the competitive outlet for the coaching and training scheme, has set up a petition calling for the Council to keep funding in place for young swimmers in the district.

As well as the 750 signatures to the change.org petition, there have also been dozens of comments, one of which appears to be from Keith Brownlee, the father of Olympic medal-winning triathletes Alistair and Jonny Brownlee, who also trained with the City of Bradford club.

Mr Brownlee states: "My children benefited from COB swimming. I am a paediatrician and understand the importance of exercise on health and academic performance. I am concerned about the impact this proposal will have on inequalities."

The Council is considering “alternative delivery models” for the elite training of the district’s top young swimmers. The City of Bradford club, which has around 60-70 members, provides the competitive swimming meets, but the training is provided directly by the Council-run programme through coaches employed by the Council.

David Alexander, chairman of COBSC, said that they were still in discussion with the Council over how the programme will be run in the future, but that things looked more positive after meetings last week.

He added: "There is still a long way to go and a lot of negotiation. We are trying to persuade the Council to keep things going until the end of the season in June, then we could start up in whatever form in time for September."

Phil Barker, the Council’s assistant director for sport and leisure, previously said that it was looking how competitive swimming was delivered, in line with budget savings.

“As part of this process we have entered into discussions with the swimming clubs about the future management and delivery of our elite squad, currently run by the Council and we are asking the clubs for their views,” he said.

“We believe that the elite scheme could be efficiently run through a range of methods, but at this stage we are having discussions with the swimming clubs about our options.”

He added: “This proposal is specifically linked to the high performance swimming squad the majority of which compete under the membership of the City of Bradford Swimming Club and would not affect the main club activity or any other swimming clubs of the district and the learn to swim programmes.”