The council's 'Star Chamber', which looks at budgets, has decided that closure of one or more of the pools attached to Carnforth High School, Heysham High School and Hornby High School should be investigated.

Closing all three would save £100,000 and details of the capacity for extra use of the Salt Ayre pool and of alternative pools available
have been requested.

Neil Harvey, chairman of the Carnforth Otters swimming club, which trains at Carnforth and Heysham, said their closure would have a "massive impact".

"We would obviously be pretty upset," he said. "It would damage any hope we had of producing swimmers for high level competitions – and we have a couple aiming for the 2012 Olympics."

July's International Youth Games in Lancaster, which involve the city's 'twin towns' could be axed – even though invitations have already
been accepted by civic delegates from Europe.

Scrapping the games – which include athletics, badminton, golf and judo – would save £55,000, while running them in a reduced format would save £20,300.

The Morecambe Dome was due to close as part of the re-development of the promenade, which is at least three years away.

But with £561,000 in repairs needed over the next five years, councillors have agreed to look at closing it sooner.

They decided against investigating closure of The Platform.

Closing the Dome with events transferred to The Platform would save £91,100 in the first year which could rise to £111,900 if events were not moved.

But demolishing the Dome would cost £85,100 and upgrading The Platform would cost £132,600.

Coun Jane Fletcher, cabinet member for culture, said: "Each cabinet member has been required to bring forward as many saving proposals as possible because of the budget problems we're having.

"Cultural services is under particular pressure because it is the only non-statutory service. It's a difficult time and we are having to consider some things we would rather not consider."

Cabinet will consider options surrounding the International Youth Games and The Dome on Tuesday.

A council spokesman stressed that final budget decisions will not be made until February.