AMBITIOUS plans to update the community baths in Wigton have been given the green light by council planners.

The proposals, which will cost about £250,000, will see a new reception, viewing gallery, multi-purpose activity room, coffee and vending machines as well as improvements to the drainage.

Allerdale Council planners approved the proposals on August 1, after consultation on the moves began on May 10.

Now Wigton Baths Trust must start applying for grants, so that work on the building can begin.

Founder and now honorary president of the trust, Alan Pitcher, said: "We are absolutely ecstatic.

"The project (the whole Wigton Baths project) is going further forward than I thought it would when we took over the baths.

"It is going forward in the right direction. We are making it a pool for the 21st century."

Mr Pitcher says it has not always been easy.

"A lot of work has gone in, as much as getting Allerdale Council to grant us that money in the first place, which has helped us to draw up the plans.

"Then there is the actual plans, a lot of work goes into that area, such as getting a flood risk assessment and things like that.

"We had to prove we are not susceptible to flooding."

He continued: "When I first took over the trust three or four years ago it was made clear to me that nothing would be for free and that we would have to make it clear to Allerdale (council) and Sport England that we were going to have the support of the community.

"That has been proved over the last couple of years."

Without the support of the community, the plans would've hit a brick wall, said Mr Pitcher.

"Things wouldn't have gone ahead without proving that the community would support us," he added.

"We have 12 schools at the pool now, any large group in the area is involved in the pool somewhere.

"So yeah, it would be fair to say without the community support we wouldn't have been able to go ahead."

Chairwoman of the baths, Mave Tyas, is equally as overjoyed with the news, adding: "I'm absolutely chuffed to bits."

She explained the next step of the process.

"All we need now is money.

"In the first stages we were looking at the £250,000 mark, but by the time the plans went in they were looking at £400,000, which is a big difference.

"But we can sort that, that is the next step."