AS SOME campaigners celebrate as their services escape closure, others have been left devastated by the cabinet's final cuts list.

Both Shelton and Tunstall pools have fallen victim to the cutbacks to produce £162,000 of savings.

Campaigner Jackie Barnes, from Trent Vale, has been fighting to save Shelton Pool, which caters for elderly and disabled people.

The 54-year-old has been visiting the pool for 16 years as she suffers from a painful skeletal condition, which has baffled doctors since the birth of her two children, now aged 21 and 14.

She said keeping active in the pool's warm water twice a week had stopped her condition deteriorating and her ending up in a wheelchair.

She said: "Mohammed Pervez has said he had to disappoint some people. Disappoint is a very lame word to use. People are devastated and afraid of what the future holds for them.

"I am very surprised the council is going to close both Shelton and Tunstall pools. I don't know how they can have come to that decision."

Sandra Roberts, aged 61, who lives in Shelton, spent a week at the pool counting the number of swimmers and found 1,671 people had used the facility in seven days back in May 2010.

She said: "It is very disappointing. It is the only public disabled swimming pool and they don't seem to have offered any real alternatives to people."

Also facing the axe are Burslem and Fenton Libraries and the city's mobile library service. The cabinet plans to pay £10,000 to Staffordshire County Council to maintain a mobile library service in some areas of the city near the border with the county for one day a week.

Two of the city's care homes, Heathside House, in Goldenhill, and Eardley House, in Bradeley, will also shut.

The majority of cuts will be achieved through restructuring council departments to make them more efficient.

The changes will result in the loss of more than 700 staff, but the majority will be achieved through voluntary redundancies.

Although Stoke-on-Trent's 16 children's centres will all be kept open, they have not escaped the cuts entirely and will lose £2.25 million in funding. This will lead to a loss of staff and services and the equivalent of just over 25 full-time members of staff are expected to be axed.

Chief executive John van de Laarschot said: "Early years for kids is absolutely pivotal and that was what swung the decision about keeping the children's centres open.

"Children's centres were always on the list of things that would be incredibly difficult to do and have a major business impact. Had we got a settlement where we only had to save £24 million, it wouldn't even have been discussed.

"Closing the children's centres was put forward as a serious option, but it was always going to be a last resort."

Leader of the council Mohammed Pervez said: "The main point is all the children's centres are staying open. The Government cuts are such that everyone across the board in the council have to work more efficiently.

"Children's centres will also have to find better ways of working and have a much leaner approach.

"We will give them more freedom to be in control and we will remove some of the bureaucracy.

"They need to look at their facilities, if there are services that are not being used, perhaps they can review them. They could generate income with a cafe or take on tenants who pay rent."

The heritage sites Ford Green Hall and Etruria Industrial Museum have been given a stay of execution along with sports facilities Northwood Stadium, Stanley Head outdoor education centre and Meir Community Centre.

Although the council no longer wants to run the sites, it has agreed to keep them open for six months in the hope that community groups and trusts will come forward to run them.

However, if after six months no one has come up with a viable business plan for the facilities, they will be closed.

Mr van de Laarschot said: "There has been a huge interest at local level in terms of trying to get groups together to keep these things open."

The council has not budgeted any savings from these facilities in the 2011/12 budget as it is anticipated that any group which takes on the management will need time before they are able to break even.

The City Farm in Bucknall will be allowed to remain open until problems with land ownership are sorted out. After that, if a trust has not been formed to run the farm, it is expected to close.

Mr van de Laarschot said: "The City Farm is not a strategic priority at all for this city. It isn't an essential service.

"Any organisation that takes it on needs to make in excess of £180,000 a year to break even.

"The chances of anyone being able to put that together are quite remote.

"That said, if there is a group out there that has the financial backing, we will give them the opportunity."

The budget proposals will also see the end of Stoke-on-Trent's white elephant – the Ceramica attraction.

The much-heralded millennium project cost £2 million and opened in 2003.

But the pottery museum failed to pull in the tourists and visitor numbers averaged just 7,809 per year since April 2007.

Of the 7,400 visitors in 2009/10, just 98 paid the full £4.10 adult admission charge.

Now the cabinet has decided to withdraw the £150,000 annual grant, which will force Ceramica to close.