South Hams Council – accused of threatening to pull the plug on Dartmouth's indoor pool dream by refusing to release vital funds – has said it is all for the idea of locals shelling out extra tax cash to help pay for the project.

But the pool team behind last week's mass protest over the pool project has declared it does not want anything to do with a 'pool tax' – which it has condemned as unfair on the residents of Dartmouth.

Instead, the pool trustees are demanding that South Hams Council honours the £400,000 pledge that is now the only thing holding up the pool project.

This has come at a time when the pool trustees are warning that they now have less than 40 days to get the pool project under way or see the £2m bill escalate out of the town's price range.

Last week, former mayor and newly elected town councillor Richard Rendle put forward the idea that the council should hold a parish poll – to see if residents were willing to see their town council tax bill go up to save the pool.

This week, a spokesman for South Hams Council said: 'This is a wonderful example of the local community working together to respond to the wishes of its residents and we are in full support of the idea.'

But the pool trustees – furious over the district council refusal to come up with the promised cash for the pool – said they had no interest in a pool tax.

Trustee Ray Bridges said: 'We must not be distracted by Cllr Rendle's idea of a pool tax after the pool is built.

'The idea of a form of pool tax is unwelcome, distracting and unfair.

'People in the Dartmouth area have been unfairly paying a part of their council tax for pools in other towns for many years.

'Even people in Dartmouth who don't use the pool would be forced to pay a tax on something that they don't use or want.

'This is a community pool for people and their families who are enthusiastic about it and who want to use it.'

Last week, more than 100 placard-carrying protesters, led by pool trust chairman Sir Geoffrey Newman, took their campaign to South Hams Council's Follaton House headquaters as the newly elected district council met for the first time.

Many of the campaigners travelled to the council offices on a double-decker bus which was laid on by Dartmouth district and county councillor Jonathan Hawkins.

The campaigners chanted and shouted outside the council offices for more than an hour, saying they wanted their swimming pool – and they wanted it 'now'.

Sir Geoffrey and a delegation of some 20 protesters were allowed in to the council chamber ahead of the meeting to present a petition containing hundreds of signatures demanding that the council live up to its £400,000 pledge.

The campaigners were trying to influence the decision over the pool cash which will be made by the council cabinet members when they meet on June 18 to discuss the situation.

Sir Geoffrey pointed out the trust had been expecting to start building the pool at the end of last month until the district dropped the bombshell that it was not releasing the £400,000 until the conclusion of a leisure centre review some time in September.

Speaking outside Follaton House, he said: 'The aim of the protest is to show new district councillors the strength of feeling there is in Dartmouth over this frustrating delay that is being imposed upon is. This has caused a huge amount of disappointment for Dartmouth and the surrounding district.'

He warned the district council that the pool team had been given 45 days to get the project under way before they start getting hit by escalating prices that the finely balance pool budget will not be able to cope with.

Mr Bridges warned this week: 'The impressive demonstration by people from Dartmouth and area last week was to embarrass South Hams Council into honouring its pledge of £400,000 for building the indoor pool by showing massive public support for it.

'If South Hams do not fulfil their pledge, the window of opportunity will be lost and the pool will never be built.

'The indoor pool trustees have a well-researched business plan for the community pool that was produced for the Dartmouth and District Indoor Pool Trust by the Amateur Swimming Association, confirmed by an independent assessor and accepted as a viable plan by South Hams Council.'

He added: 'The district council's hide-bound officers seem unaware that there are many successful community-run pools in England, pools which we have researched, and which are not run at the expense of the council tax payer – unlike the South Hams pools. Significantly, we have not been told what will happen to the grant if their selected leisure provider does not want to go to the expense of building a pool for Dartmouth.

'The trust is ready and waiting to build a community indoor pool It will be built by the people who want it, run by the people who want it and used by the people who want it.'