TIRELESS campaigners are within sight of their target to replace the ageing swimming pool at St Michael's First School in Minehead after picking up a £20,000 grant this week.

The money from from Sport England's Inspired Facilities Fund means they have raised almost £70,000 in less than a year towards the cost.

And work could start on the replacement pool in just two months' time, with the first swimmers taking a dip in the New Year if everything goes according to plan.

The fundraising total now stands at more than £68,000, and the the driving force behind the campaign, St Michael's Parents' and Teacher's Association (PTA), is still waiting to hear from a number of other potential funding sources before being able to celebrate the completion of the fundraising campaign.

PTA chairman Tracey Sweetland said she was thrilled to receive Sport England funding and that around another £10,000 was still needed to ensure the new pool and surrounding building was energy efficient and eco-friendly.

She said grant applications were still in the pipeline for measures such as solar panels and safety flooring.

And she admitted the scale of the PTA's achievement had not yet sunk in.

"It really hasn't hit me yet. It's really exciting to think we're nearly there and it's fantastic to have been given the Sport England grant," she said.

She said the PTA was hoping to submit a planning application for the new pool in the next few weeks.

"We're hoping to have everything done and dusted by the end of September, which is amazing when you think we didn't really get going with the fundraising until the middle of last September," she said.

Mrs Sweetland travelled to Torquay on Tuesday with St Michael's headteacher Anna Boulton to collect the £20,000 cheque from Sport England.

The grant is part of a £135 million National Lottery initiative designed to leave a lasting sporting legacy across the country to mark the London 2012 Olympic games.

Richard Lewis, chairman of Sport England, said: "This National Lottery investment will create a lasting sporting legacy for Minehead.

"The fund has really hit the mark with groups in the South West.

"It shows we're offering a legacy that people want for their local communities.

"For hundreds of groups and thousands of people, 2012 will be the year their local sports facilities got better."

The St Michael's fundraising campaign kicked off last September with a sponsored swim which saw friends, pupils, staff and parents taking the plunge to swim 3,734 lengths of the pool - the equivalent of swimming the Bristol Channel across to Wales.

The first big boost came towards the end of last year when banking giant NatWest gave the PTA £6,000 from its CommunityForce grant scheme.

At that stage, the group believed it would only need around £20,000 to patch up the pool, but the goalposts soon shifted and campaigners set about raising between £70,000 and £90,000 to replace both the leaking pool and the surrounding building.

From there, the fundraising went from strength to strength, including a £5,000 grant from the Somerset Community Foundation, £14,000 from developer's cash paid to West Somerset Council to offset the impact of their building work, and a further £2,300 from building company Cowlin.

On top of that, numerous individual fundraising events have been held both at the school and around Minehead, including festive fairs and pamper evenings.

Many parents have also offered to give their time free of charge to physically help the new pool project once building work gets underway.

Bridgwater and West Somerset MP Ian Liddell-Grainger congratulated everyone involved: "St Michael's has struck gold just in time for the Olympics.

"I am absolutely thrilled about this grant.

"The money will enable the hard-working PTA at St Michael's to work towards getting their much-needed new pool.

"It is a huge boost both for the school and the Minehead community."