Officials at a swimming club which has produced three Olympians claim that a rent hike for Warrior Square pool will force them out of business.

Borough of Southend Swimming Club say they have been told they must now pay almost three times as much for hiring the pool out of hours.

The club struck a deal with the council in 1996 to pay just 15 per cent of the going rate when the elite swimmers attend training at 5am - out of public hours.

But now the complex is sub-contracted to Glendale Leisure, that arrangement has been overlooked for the coming year.

Glendale are due to increase the Borough club's charge from £220 to £636.50 on November 1 - 85 per cent of the council-set fee of £728.

As a result, Borough of Southend officials say they are scrambling to save the club from going under.

Club president Geoff Hardcastle, father of Olympic silver medalist Sarah, estimated the increased charges to be around £24,000 a year - a huge amount for a club with just 45 current members.

He said: "The increase was so unreasonable that I couldn't believe it when I got the letter. I thought it had to be a mistake - remember, this is a charge for out-of-hours swimming.

"But no matter how much I talk to Glendale Leisure, the figure just keeps on coming back at us.

"Borough of Southend Swimming Club is one of the most successful amateur clubs of any kind this area has had for the last 20 years. Locals have the prestige of seeing Southend making the headlines around the world.

"But we can't afford to pay an extra £24,000 a year so the club will be forced to fold and the top swimmers will have to go out of the area."

If the Borough club didn't survive, it would mean the end of one of the country's most prolific conveyor belts of international swimming stars.

Following in the footsteps of former Olympic stars like Jackie Willmott, Sarah Hardcastle and Mark Foster - all former Borough swimmers - the club boasts current up-and-coming talent of the calibre of world championship star Nathalie Brown and Commonwealth Games hopeful Philippa Davies.

Adding to the intrigue at the club is the position of two part-time coaches, Pam Higgs, wife of Borough of Southend starmaker and coach Mike Higgs, and Denise Banks, who are having their contracts terminated.

They were taken on in 1996 to help with coaching members of the public - necessary if the club was to pay the new 15 per cent charges brought in that year.

Parents have now been asked to lobby Southend council to state their case.

Glendale Leisure was unavailable for comment.

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