Swimmers angry at the closure of their village baths say schoolchildren are foregoing lessons rather than travel to other pools.

Thornton residents have been without a pool since October when the baths were closed for health and safety reasons.

But at a village forum, Bradford councillors were told children from schools in the area were missing lessons because it took too much time to travel to alternative venues.

Councillor John Buffham (Con, Thornton) said: "Parents object to sending their children to other swimming baths in Manningham for lessons and I have been told that some cannot go at all because it takes too much time out of the school day.

"We have submitted a bid to the Sports Council for Lottery funding. We need to build a new pool which we have been told would cost from £750,000 to £1 million.

"We need any money from the Lottery to be matched by Bradford Council but all of its money is earmarked for education.''

Residents have asked councillors to reopen the baths, in Thornton Road, but Coun Buffham said years of neglect had left it structurally unsound.

Ward councillors were looking at alternative sites in the village, including at schools closed down in the education shake up.

Melanie Milnes, of the Save our Baths campaign group, said people were fed up with what they saw as a lack of action from the Council. She said: "People feel that nothing is happening and that they are being let down badly. I know of one single parent who is having to pay £85, including travel costs, for a ten-week course at the Shipley baths.

"All we are told is that Thornton does not qualify as a priority because it is not poor enough."