THE closure of The Water Place may have threatened the very existence of a local swimming club, but members are still making a splash in the water.

Bolton Bridgeman Amateur Swimming Club's synchronised swimming section gathered a host of medals and top performances in the recent Annual Northern Counties Championships at Radcliffe pool.

This included a bronze medal for 20-year-old Karen Simpson in the seniors event, who has is a regular member of the Northern Counties District squad.

Faye Jardine, a 15-year-old pupil at Canon Slade, took a silver medal in the pairs event alongside 12-year-old Holly Swindells of Turton High School, who also won another two bronze medals in different disciplines.

Elizabeth Jardine of Atherton took second place in the grade two figure result, and along with Holly has been selected for the Northern Counties development squad.

The Bridgeman club has already had a member that has gone on to represent Great Britain and is hoping for more success, but faces a tough future having been forced to find a new base following the council's closure of The Water Place.

Their new venue is Smithills School which has caused travel problems for many of the club's members and there has been a dramatic decline in membership.

According to a club spokeswoman the financial implications of this have caused the club to consider the worst.

She says: "In its life time our club has already moved from the baths at Bridgeman Street and then Moss Street because of closure.

"On these occasions our members followed us because these pools were on the outskirts of the town centre.

"But we lost almost half our membership in this recent move.

"The majority of our members from the Deane and Daubhill area were not prepared to travel to the other side of town, neither were the families we attracted from Farnworth.

"We were in a catch 22 sitaution because if we had moved to Farnworth pool the families from the north side of town would have left the club. Either way the club lost.

"Sadly our swimming club is in decline, fewer members mean higher costs, even the thought of closure has crossed the committee's minds."