THE 30-year battle to give Bromyard its own swimming pool moves up a gear tomorrow when a delegation travels to London for high-level talks aimed at salvaging the scheme.

Four members of the project's working party will be heading to the capital to meet with the chief executive of Sport England - the governing body in charge of leisure developments.

The town council has just paid more than £6,500 to an expert firm - DTZ Pieda - to carry out a feasibility study on the much-discussed scheme.

But their findings have knocked back the plan by saying that the town cannot justify its own pool and that any new development would have an adverse effect on neighbouring towns.

"We're hoping Sport England will make their own observations and give us something positive to go back to DTZ with - we'd like them to revise their report," said vice-chairman of the working party David Cave.

Bromyard is one of only two towns in Herefordshire without its own pool. It is believed that demand exists for more than 50,000 'swims' in the area every year.

"The population of Bromyard is growing all the time," added Councillor Cave. "I'm still hopeful that we will either get a leisure pool or a 'joint-use' pool at the Queen Elizabeth High School."