WHEN the Labour-controlled City of York Council announced it was to close at least one of our municipal swimming pools, it caused an outcry.

More than 26,000 people signed the Evening Press Save Our Swim petition, a massive tide of public support backed by the then opposition leader Steve Galloway.

It proved to be the decisive issue in a May 2000 by-election which robbed Labour of its majority. The first thing Coun Galloway pledged to do was to save the threatened baths.

"We have made our views 100 per cent clear on the future of the two pools, and we will do whatever is necessary to ensure Yearsley and the Barbican are freed from the threat of closure," he told the Evening Press.

Six years on, much has changed. The Liberal Democrats are in power, Coun Galloway is in charge and today we learn the Barbican swimming pool will not be replaced.

It is nothing less than a betrayal of the thousands of Save Our Swim campaigners whose support helped the Lib Dems to power.

The Barbican Centre was paid for by the people of York and used by the people of York, young and old, rich and poor. It has been taken from us and will be largely replaced by a hotel for wealthy visitors, whose management might - or might not - consent to residents using the small pool and gym.

Coun Galloway will blame the Save Our Barbican group for this debacle. A politician criticising others for exercising their democratic rights is not a salubrious spectacle.

Updated: 09:11 Thursday, January 26, 2006