CONSTRUCTION of a controversial multi-milion pound council swimming pool is to go ahead.

And the contract for the modern eight-lane 25-metre pool, next to Blackbird Leys Leisure Centre, in Oxford, was handed to developer Willmott Dixon at a meeting of the city council’s executive board.

The new pool will have a gym, a fun pool, a sauna, and spectator seating. But while orginal estimates put the build cost at £8.5m, councillors were last night warned to prepare for a possible rise to £9.23m.

Both the Temple Cowley Pools and the existing Blackbird Leys Pool will close once the new complex is built – despite a vocal campaign against that move.

The Cowley site is set to be sold, possible for housing, to fund the scheme.

The council’s head of leisure Ian Brooke told the meeting that building the modern facility and closing the other pools would save the council £300,000 a year, and lower its carbon footprint by 720 tonnes a year.

Council leader Bob Price added: “The benefits to the council and the council taxpayers are clear.”

Preparation work will now start at the Pegasus Road site and the new complex is expected to be completed in the Autumn next year.

But the decision has angered those campaigning to keep Temple Cowley Pools open. A third petition against the closure of the Temple Road site, with 2,385 names, was handed to the council earlier this month.

The first petition in October had more than 10,000 signatures.

Nigel Gibson, of Save Temple Cowley Pools, said that the council had not listened to concerned residents.

He said last night: “They are determined to close a perfectly good pool in Blackbird Leys and in Cowley and build this proposed new white elephant vanity project.”

He said the group would now try to appeal against the decision.

But chief executive Peter Sloman said parts of Temple Cowley Pools were in a “chronically bad state” and added: “People always understand what they are losing, but find it hard to envisage what they are gaining.”

News of the new pool was welcomed by the City of Oxford Swimming Club.

Chairman Ian Smith said: “The Temple Cowley pool is failing. The water is grimy and the tiles are dirty. It is always an embarrassment when other clubs from other communities come to visit.”

The council’s leisure contractors Fusion Lifestyle will run the new facility.

Willmott Dixon carried out £30.5m contract to build Oxford Academy’s new home on Sandy Lane West, Oxford, which opened officially this month.