CLAIMS Worcester's massive new future swimming pool could cost taxpayers nearly £500,000 a year to subsidise have been rubbished - as the row over the grand £10.4 million facility rumbles on.

Your Worcester News can reveal how the Conservative leadership is aiming to slash the yearly bill to less than £300,000 in an aim to make it better value for money.

Councillor Chris Mitchell, the cabinet member for finance, claims opposition politicians are deliberately trying to overstate the costs to curry favour with taxpayers.

It comes as Worcester Labour Party renews its criticism over the Perdiswell project, saying it will take the pool decision "back to full council" for another vote if it wrestles back control of the authority in next May's elections.

Details in-house reports on the pool, which will feature eight lanes and be built by extending Perdiswell Leisure Centre to give it a new wing, suggest a worst-case scenario of a £493,000 yearly subsidy will be needed for the entire lifespan of the facility.

But the Tories say they hope to make the ‘build’ costs cheaper than the estimate, and insist the number of possible visitors has been deliberately set at a very cautious level, with any usage above 288,885 a year bringing the subsidy down further.

Cllr Mitchell said: "That £493,000 yearly bill would be if we borrowed every single penny of that £10.4 million, and we are not going to do that.

"If we can get £3.5 million of capital (money) into the project we are actually looking at the figure being no worse than £299,000, and that's based on strong beliefs around the funding and what we hope to get from Sport England.

"So when the opposition say we can't afford it, they are incorrect."

The financial forecasts are based on funding from a host of sources including the sale of Sansome Walk pool, a loan, some cash from the £3.1 million for selling the Orchard House complex to the University of Worcester and a possible Sport England grant.

The new-look Perdiswell pool will be in operation by the end of 2016 under the plans, with an alternative proposal for a cheaper six-lane pool costing £9.2 million rejected by a majority of councillors last month.

Labour has renewed its calls to take it back to full council once the funds have been determined - a request which the leadership has already refused.

Councillor Adrian Gregson, Labour group leader, said: "There are still unanswered questions over the funding and we are not convinced the case has been made.

"If we get back control we'll take it back to full council."

Councillor Roger Berry added: "It's all based on assumptions, nobody knows for certain how this can be achieved."