Ledbury Swimming Club and Halo Leisure are to hold talks about pool hire times in a move that could save one of the town's biggest youth sports organisations from closing.

Club chairman Roger Jones has said the club will close rather than lose essential evening training slots for younger children.

This week Halo wrote to the club offering further discussions. The club has written back, accepting the meeting, though the time and place is yet to be fixed and both sides are still accusing each other of intransigence.

A joint statement issued this week by Herefordshire Council's leisure services manager, Tony Feather-stone and Jon Argent, Halo's chief executive, states: "The club has refused to discuss any changes to its timetable.

"It is important to note that even at this stage, Halo is still willing to compromise over the proposed changes but it awaits a constructive approach from the club."

Halo claims there are 150 children needing swimming lessons at the pool who cannot be accommodated because the club has most of the early evening slots.

Mr Jones said: "From the outset we have offered to share the 5pm to 6pm slot, to accommodate the extra demand for swimming lessons.

"It is quite incorrect for Halo to say the club has not moved. I'm sure we could work together."

The club has launched its own street survey to assess potential user demand at the pool during the early evening slots that Halo proposes.

Several parents of children who attend Ledbury Swimming Club have written to the Ledbury Reporter calling for the club to be saved.

Club secretary Marie-Claire Parsons said one of her children had told her: "Do they not know that if I can't swim for Ledbury, it will break my heart?"

Parents Andrew and Miranda Leitch, whose nine-year-old son attends the club said: "It would be scandalous if a club that does so much good for the youth of Ledbury should not be allowed to continue to do so.

"When Herefordshire Council handed over control of this public asset to Halo, they cannot possibly have had this in mind."