SWIMMERS in Cowley want to ‘protect’ a playing field in another area in a last ditch attempt to save their swimming pool.

The Save Temple Cowley Pools group has revealed it will apply for Town Green status for playing fields in Blackbird Leys where a replacement pool is set to be built by Oxford City Council.

If their bid is successful it could derail hopes of a £16m complex on the site.

The designation, decided by Oxfordshire County Council, has been used before in the city, most recently to protect Warneford Meadow in Headington.

The city council’s plans for a new complex, including competition, learner and toddler pools, were granted planning permission this week and with only agreement on building costs to come.

But leading pool campaigner Nigel Gibson told the Oxford Mail after the meeting: “We are applying for Town Green status. What that would mean for the site is no more building and they would have to look again at their plans.”

Mr Gibson said he was confident the area, next to the existing leisure centre in Pegasus Road, would qualify for the designation.

“It is a green space in the heart of Blackbird Leys that has been enjoyed by people for decades.”

On Thursday night, the council’s plans for a new pool complex were given planning permission by its strategic development control committee.

And if the council is happy with build costs, set to be discussed next month, then the pool will go ahead.

It will replace the Temple Cowley Pools and the existing Blackbird Leys Pool, which the council says are both too costly to run.

During a heated planning meeting, opponents said the new pool was in the wrong place and would increase traffic on the estate.

Councillor Dick Wolff said: “When we were expecting 4,000 new homes south of Grenoble Road (near Blackbird Leys) the centre of gravity of Oxford was shifting and this might have made sense.

“But the tide has gone out and we have been left with something in the wrong place.”

Pegasus Road resident Dave Roper, who lives opposite the proposed pool, said the building would ruin views for residents.

He said: “It’s going to be taller than our houses and taller than the maisonettes behind us. We’re gong to be caught in the middle.”

But councillors voted seven to five to pass the plans.

Ian Brooke, the authority’s head of leisure, had told them: “The pool will support the continued regeneration of Blackbird Leys.”