COMMONWEATH Games swimmer Sian Morgan has spoken of how Bradford Council's elite swimming programme provided her with the skills to compete at the highest level.

It comes as the Bradford Council development scheme is under threat in its current form due to funding cuts. The detailed changes, which the authority is in discussion with the City of Bradford Swimming Club about, are expected to be revealed at a key meeting next week.

Sian who is a zoology student at Edinburgh University, and currently studying abroad at the University of Miami, said: "I was a member of City of Bradford Swimming Club from the age of five for over 13 years. I started having swimming lessons at my home pool in Ilkley under the Bradford Council scheme at the age of three and then progressed to the COBSC training scheme.

"Living in Ilkley, the local swimming club could only offer me 2-3 hours of training a week which was insufficient to compete at county level.

"Whilst at COBSC, training under the Council scheme, I trained 18-20 hours a week and progressed from club level through to international level resulting in selection onto the Great Britain Junior Team and selection for Wales in the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

"Without this opportunity to train at this level, I would not have succeeded as it was too far and impractical for me to travel to Leeds twice a day."

Her comments come as the Telegraph & Argus revealed last week that the Council is considering "alternative delivery models" for the elite training of the district's top young swimmers.

Geoff Killock, of Bingley Swimming Club, which acts as a feeder club for the elite programme, told the T&A that the volunteer-run swimming clubs across the district were not given any concrete details of what was being proposed at a recent meeting.

"The Council turned up with an announcement that funding was to be cut and that they were expecting the clubs to come up with a business model to bridge the gap in the funding, and find a way to continue the elite swimming programme.

"They expected these ideas to be brought to another meeting within two weeks."

The City of Bradford club provides the competitive swimming meets, but the training is provided directly by the COuncil-run programme through Council coaches.

Phil Barker, the Council’s assistant director for sport and leisure, said last week that they were looking at the way in which competitive swimming is 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 added: "We believe that the elite swimming coaching scheme could be efficiently run through a range of delivery methods, but at this stage we are having discussions with the swimming clubs about our options.

"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.”