A CONSERVATIVE councillor has accused Boston Borough Council's ruling group of misleading him over the re-opening of the Geoff Moulder Leisure Centre training pool.

It was announced last week that the pool, which has been closed since last year, would come back into use once a £2.2 million refurbishment scheme at the centre was completed.

But Cllr Raymond Singleton-McGuire claims the ruling Boston Bypass Independents Party led councillors to believe the pool would re-open on April 1 when private contractors Leisure Connections took on the running of the centre.

He said: "I have asked direct questions at council and was told the training pool would not be open until the new contractor took over on April 1.

"Both myself and the 14,000 petitioners of Boston have been hoodwinked.

"It is disgraceful to move the goal posts in the face of public opinion.

"I shall be going back to the Save Our Pool action group on this and looking at how we can fight to have the training pool re-opened in April."

However, council portfolio holder for sport Cllr Richard Dungworth rubbished these allegations.

He said: "It has never been the case that we said the training pool would open on April 1.

"What we have said is we are committed to re-opening the training pool as soon as possible and we still are.

"If we opened it now it would cost an extra £1,600 to £2,000 per week for an estimated 100 extra swimmers.

"That would mean we are effectively subsidising every extra swim by £16 and that is something we cannot afford.

"What is more if we were to open the training pool now we would have to spend money getting it ready for use only to close it in a few months when the refurbishment begins.

"This deal with the private contractor and refurbishment is good news for Boston.

"It will allow us to have two swimming pools at the Geoff Moulder once again and at the same time save taxpayers £154,000 a year.

"I can't understand where Cllr Singleton-McGuire is coming from."