A CHARITABLE trust has now been set up to take over the management of Portishead's open-air pool from the council.

Members of the Save The Open-air Pool (STOP) campaign, backed by the Evening Post, have been working for several weeks to set up the community-run trust.

Campaigners are pressing North Somerset Council, which is recommending the pool should close to save cash, to place the management of the 1960s lido into the hands of a trust, which would run it on a not-for-profit basis.

The organisation has been called The Portishead Pool Community Trust and six trustees have been appointed to run it.

They are STOP campaign leader Roger Whitfield and pool supporters David Coombes, Pat Gardner, Jane Humphries, Andy Richards and David Gunnell.

The trust has also drawn up a business plan which has been handed to councillors and includes proposals to ensure the pool opens next season.

It also details planned improvements and how the trust will access grants from charitable groups and the lottery. The trust's detailed business plan will be handed to North Somerset Council executive before it meets on December 16 to make a final decision on the pool's future.

Mr Whitfield said the launch of the charitable trust was a real milestone in the battle to save the pool.

Mr Whitfield said: "Now we have got the trust set up we have a legal framework in place to start talking to the council about us taking over the management of the open-air pool."

A report by North Somerset Council investigating the operating costs of the pool recommends closing the attraction and selling the site, with the money from the sale used on improving leisure facilities elsewhere in the town.

Council leaders say it costs £130,000 a year to run the lido and that the authority is subsiding each swim by £14.

The authority's strategic planning and economic development scrutiny panel is currently scrutinising the report and is due to make its recommendation on the future of the pool to the executive in the next few weeks.

Mr Whitfield said: "What we need now is for the scrutiny panel to recommend that the council looks at the option of handing over the pool to the trust. We have a business plan, funding, engineers and a team of professional volunteers in place to make this happen.

"The only way that we can make sure the pool opens next season is if the council sit down and talk to us about our plans."

News that the pool is under threat sparked a wave of protest among swimmers in the town.

In October more than 250 people packed a public meeting to back the principle of setting up a trust to run the pool.

And earlier this month more than 400 placard-waving protestors marched through Portishead chanting "don't be cruel, save our pool" to vent their anger at the closure proposals.