AMBITIOUS plans to build an Olympic-sized swimming pool in a Kent city in time for the 2012 games have been sunk by a lack of money.

The University of Kent, Canterbury City Council and Kent County Council have concluded no one can provide the cash for a pool in Canterbury.

Further discussion on the project has been postponed and it is understood it has effectively been abandoned.

It was hoped a 10-lane 50m pool on a two-acre site at the university would act as a draw to the county by providing a training centre for competing countries.

But the cost – estimated at between £20 million and £25 million – has proved prohibitive and Cllr Mike Hill, KCC’s cabinet member for communities, conceded it was unlikely the pool would be built.

He said: "The chances are less than 50-50 and we have to be realistic."