PARENTS in Berkeley have stepped forward to run a swimming pool which has been saved from closure.

Mums and dads of pupils at Berkeley Primary School are so desperate to see their children learn to swim in the much-loved pool they have volunteered to form a management committee.

Mum-of-two Shona Darley has put herself forward as chairman of the committee after Gloucestershire County Council announced it was looking for an independent body to run the pool last week.

She said: "I feel so passionate about it and there is a group of us who would love to take it on.

"It is a big responsibility but we would be more than happy to run and manage the pool for after school swimming and then hopefully swimming during the school holidays."

The school’s governing body announced a review of the pool to ensure the facility was ‘fit for purpose’ after taking over the management last year.

Governors voted unanimously to keep the pool, which was built and paid for by the community in 1965, at a meeting last week. On their way to the meeting, governors were met by over 100 protesters who turned out in support of the pool.

Mrs Darley, whose children are in Years 1 and 3 at the school, said: "People in Berkeley helped build the swimming pool, literally putting their shovels in the ground, so they feel very passionate about it.

"It was a fantastic turnout and we feel without their support, and the coverage in the Gazette, the governors would have closed it."

She said parents had contacted the school and governors to suggest reforming the committee which ran the pool two years ago.

"I was chairman of the committee before and feel there is a great team who can help," she said.

"It would be different this time though because it would be a community pool and decisions on the future would be made by the whole community, not just the school."

A new independent body would be able to apply for National Lottery funding and grants from local businesses.

If the group is successful, it plans to reopen the pool as early as next month for a trial period of after school swimming sessions.