RESIDENTS' latest calls for a swimming pool to be built in Seaham seem likely to be rejected.

The Seaham Environmental Association (SEA) has been campaigning for some time for the town to have its own baths.

The nearest facilities are at Sunderland or Peterlee, but the association said there was a strong demand for a pool in the northern part of the district.

It has called on Easington District Council and the Easington Primary Care Trust to fund a pool after statistics showed that the district has some of the worst health problems in the country. The association believes a pool could help efforts to reduce heart disease, which is 40 per cent above the national average.

But the council's cabinet will tomorrow be recommended to tell the association that it has no cash to build and run a pool.

The primary care trust has said that a 40 per cent increase in its funding for the next three years was given specifically to ensure people get hospital appointments and treatment as soon as possible.

In a letter to the council, association secretary Norman Border said that the Government "officially recognises the health problems which undoubtedly could be significantly alleviated if swimming facilities were available".

He said: "SEA is frequently approached by the public in significant numbers expressing their frustration and even undisguised anger over the council's current policy on the subject."

Mr Border continued: "SEA do not accept the important, but simplistic economic argument so far provided to postpone such provision."

He also called on the council to seek National Lottery funding for a pool.

Councillors will consider a draft reply from chief executive Paul Wilding that says the council "cannot meet the capital costs of provision or the ongoing subsidy required to maintain the facilities''.

Primary care trust chief executive Dr Roger Bolas has said he could not see the trust being able to divert NHS funds to a pool even though it was sympathetic to the association's case that it would help improve people's health.