Swimming pool bosses could be faced with a compensation claim for every single customer Dartmouth's new £2.4m pool lures away from the district council-owned leisure centres at Kingsbridge, Totnes and Ivybridge.

At the moment no one knows how much the Dartmouth pool trust could end up having to shell out in compensation.

Dartmouth Town Council heard claims it could be as much as £50,000 a year.

And South Hams Council leader Cllr John Tucker has made it clear that whatever the figure the district council had no intention of footing the bill.

Now worried town councillors – who are committed to pumping £250,000 into the pool project – are planning to question the pool trustees over the possible compensation claims.

And town councillor Rob Lyon told his fellow councillors: 'I am very concerned about this. How come it is the swimming pool that is going to have to pay this money?'

The Dartmouth and District Indoor Pool Trust is on the verge of submitting a detailed planning application to build the pool next to the leisure centre in Townstal.

Like the leisure centres at Kingsbridge, Totnes and Ivybridge, the Dartmouth center is run by the Taunton-based Tone Leisure for South Hams Council which owns the buildings.

In May, South Hams Council's executive agreed to provide the site for the new indoor pool alongside a number of conditions – one of which states: 'That all costs arising from the issue of the building agreement and ground lease, bar the council's in-house legal and surveyors' fees, be met by the DDIPT. These costs will include all compensation due to Tone Leisure as a consequence of the construction of the DDIPT indoor pool.'

The news surprised town councillors when they met this week and Cllr Debbie Morris called for an explanation over the possible compensation payments which she suggested could run into 'several thousand pounds'.

Cllr Dave Cawley said he had heard figures quoted as high as £50,000 a year and Cllr Steve Smith warned: 'This will go down like a lead balloon in Dartmouth.'

Dartmouth district councillor Hilary Bastone confirmed the clause had been written into the South Hams Council deal with the pool trust – which also included a payment of £400,000 towards the building costs.

But he stressed that no one had any idea how much any compensation claim would be and dismissed the figures being quoted as 'silly money'.

Pool trust chairman Sir Geoffrey Newman said the trust had yet to sign up to the conditions, adding: 'We are currently discussing it with the district council.' He added: 'If you ran a charitable trust with money coming from the public purse... would you take on an unquantifiable clause in any contract that you have to sign?'

He said the clause was not a 'deal breaker' and added: 'Compromise is the key word. It is one of many things that we have to discuss with our landlord.'

Cllr Tucker told the Chronicle the district council's contract with Tone Leisure leaves the council liable for compensation if it agrees to allow the development of leisure facilities on its land which affect the contract.

He too stressed that no one at this time could put a figure on any compensation claim and suggested the pool could in fact increase the use of the leisure centre and offset any need for compensation.

'It's an unknown quantity. It could be nothing and it could be quite a bit,' he said.

He added that the district council is about to launch into a review of the way its leisure centres are run – which could involve looking at a range of options when the Tone Leisure contract runs out in 2016.