AFTER years of wrangling over its future, the fate of Temple Cowley Pools appeared to be finally sealed this week.

Oxford City Council leaders on Wednesday decided to sell the site to housing association Catalyst Housing for 47 homes for £3.5m.

But campaigners to save the the pool, which began life as Temple Cowley Baths back in 1938, are still hoping for a reprieve.

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Calls were made as early as the 1970s to renovate the dilapidated structure, which was often overbooked and overcrowded.

A £2.3m refurbishment began in 1984 and opened in 1986 at a cost of £3m after delays to provide an Olympic-standard swimming pool for the people of Cowley.

But in September 2010, the council announced plans to build a new pool and leisure centre in Blackbird Leys and demolish Temple Cowley Pools.

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Taking to the water at the newly-reopened Temple Cowley Pools in 1986 are city councillors Nigel Thomas, Barbara Gatehouse, Andrew Smith and Lord Mayor Jack Parker         

The council said the new £9.23m facility – due to open by February – was a suitable replacement and Temple Cowley was costing the authority too much to run.

By October 2010, community activists had collected 10,000 signatures from residents hoping to keep Temple Cowley Pools open.

Work began at Blackbird Leys in July last year, seven months after campaigners lost a High Court judicial review to halt the sale of Temple Cowley.

Save Temple Cowley Pools registered the pool as an asset of community value this April, meaning the sale was put on hold for six months.

This gave the campaign group time to come up with a business plan, which the council turned down in favour of the land sale.

Campaign spokeswoman Jane Alexander, 59, said: “I was the third person to get a ticket to use the pool when it first opened. It’s truly a fantastic place for the community and an incredible asset.”

She hopes the council’s scrutiny committee will step in to study the decision, and put the sale on hold.

She told the Mail: “We hope that on legal grounds we can argue that the council will not be replacing the swimming pool with a similar or improved facility, as Blackbird Leys is not in our catchment area.

“We know we can win and we will continue to fight for Temple Cowley Pools,” she added.

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Save Temple Cowley Pools spokeswoman Jane Alexander with some of the letters collected against its closure

Oxford city councillor for Northfield Brook Scott Seamons said: “It wasn’t a hard decision to make as Catalyst are providing over 50 per cent affordable housing and the city is receiving £3.5m for the site.

“We’ve invested over £9m in a state-of-the-art facility at Blackbird Leys which will surpass the facilities offered at Temple Cowley.”

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One of the letters written by children against the closure of the pool



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