A NEW multi-million-pound swimming pool in Blackbird Leys has moved a step closer after plans were submitted by Oxford City Council.

Attached to the estate’s leisure centre in Pegasus Road, it would provide an eight-lane, 25-metre pool with moveable floor, sauna and new changing facilities.

But it could spell the end for Temple Cowley Pools, which will be sold off for an estimated £1.5m to help finance the new complex.

Last night supporters of the new pool claimed it would be “great for Oxford”.

But campaigners battling to keep the Temple Cowley facility open said they would continue their fight.

The city council wants to develop an “excellent facility for casual swimming that can be enjoyed by people of all ages, which also meets the needs of the city as a competition standard pool”.

The building cost is put at £8.5m and the council estimates the total cost, over 25 years, will be £16m.

Officers hope it will be completed in the autumn of 2012.

Blackbird Leys Parish Council chairman Gordon Roper welcomed the decision. He said: “The pool is not just for Blackbird Leys, but something for everybody to use and enjoy.”

But Nigel Gibson, one of the campaigners who has waged a five-year battle to save Temple Cowley, said the council had not made a case for closing the Temple Road complex.

Mr Gibson said: “We have no issue with a new pool at Blackbird Leys if they have the funds to do it and provided they don’t say Temple Cowley must close.”

The designs were finalised following consultation with residents and swimming pool users last year.

In May, councillors will consider tenders and make a final decision.

Councillor Bob Timbs, the executive member for leisure, said: “The new pool would be great for the whole city.”

Mr Timbs said refurbishing Temple Cowley Pools was not a viable option and would be “a drain on taxpayers’ money”.

He added: “We would rather plough the millions of pounds into a new centre with great facilities than waste it on an old building.”

The council, as the planning authority, will make the decision on the planning application.

dhearn@oxfordmail.co.uk