A NEW swimming pool in the borough looks unlikely anytime soon after the council's deputy leader said there is no money for it.

Ian Bond, deputy leader of Redbridge Council, told a meeting of the council's cabinet that a new pool is "not a reaslistic aspiration".

His forthright views left John Sharrock, chairman of Redbridge Swimmers' Association, disappointed after he spoke at the meeting in an effort to gain support for a new facility.

The council's cabinet met at Ilford Town Hall last night and discussed a proposal from Redbridge College to provide a joint leisure and education development on the site of a car and lorry park in Seven Kings.

Mr Sharrock said: "Two years ago two of our three pools closed and since then we have fought hard to replace at least some of that loss.

"Now we have this 10 page report with the proposed scenario of a massive prestigious tower block housing our pool, a health centre, a library, Redbridge College and dwellings all on the small area of the lorry park."

Mr Sharrock said that if the project was to go ahead and be funded by the sale of land it would raise a series of question marks and the project would take years to become reality.

He urged the council to build a new leisure facility on the Cricklefields site in Ilford, "a proven site with plenty of room for expansion," he said.

Sue Nolan, council member responsible for leisure, said that whatever steps the council takes it will cost a "considerbale amount" but she reiterated there is a commitment to build a new pool.

However, Mr Bond said: "This idea of a new swimming pool has been around for years and right from the beginning we have never seen how it can be afforded, however desirable it might be."

Keith Prince, council leader, said it was his "dream" to bring a new pool to the borough but he added "at this moment in time we don't have the money".

Janet Cornish, of Tennyson Avenue, Wanstead, has previously campaigned for more swimming pools in the borough.

The retired mother-of-two said she taught her children to swim when they were young and it is a shame people will now struggle to do the same in Redbridge.

She said: "I believe the council ha spent more than £1 million on consultants and they have basically wasted that money by thinking of grandiose plans in the past and nothing has come of it.

"I think we have about a quarter of a million people in the borough and only one pool, no wonder it's overcrowded.

"Redbridge is the worst London borough for swimming, it's a disgrace."

Mr Sharrock, who regularly swims at Fullwell Cross Leisure Centre in Barkingside, said: "I don't want people to think the lack of swimming facilities is normal because it is abnormal and it's pretty terrible."

The cabinet agreed to enter into detailed discussions with Redbridge College over the feasibility of a joint venture on the Seven Kings lorry park site.