RESIDENTS have opted for a community swimming pool at York's Barbican Centre by a slim margin.

Plans for a six-lane community pool at the site were backed by 51 per cent of residents who voted in the consultation, beating proposals for a larger county standard swimming pool by only 25 votes.

Out of the 1,183 people who gave their views on the project, 604 supported the idea of the community pool while 579 preferred the county standard option.

The results were announced by City of York Council's leisure chiefs after a four-week consultation, which ended on August 8.

Residents considered two options, an eight-lane county standard swimming pool, which would release a capital receipt of £3 million, or a community pool which would provide an extra £1.4 million. The extra cash generated by the community pool would be used to refurbish the city's two other pools, Yearsley and Edmund Wilson. City of York Council leader Steve Galloway said the plans would now move forward to the planning stage and work on the community pool is expected to start next March.

He said: "It has been a fairly closely balanced result. We are pleased that a small majority are in favour of the community pool option because this will allow us to invest more money in sports facilities generally in the city.

"We recognise there is a body of opinion that does want to see a spectator facility pool established in the city."

He said the council would look again at the need for a county standard swimming pool in the next few years.

But Coun Alan Jones, Labour's spokesperson for leisure and heritage, said he felt more public consultation was needed before a decision could be reached.

He said: "This result raises more questions than it answers. The level of response is less than half that of our original city-wide consultation - which overwhelmingly supported the county pool approach.

"Given this, and the fact that the result is virtually tied, we believe that a proper household-level consultation of the type we originally called for is the only way to resolve this issue. There are still many unresolved questions about the way this process has been handled, and we will be demanding answers."

Proposals on the community pool will go to the executive on Tuesday, September 16, for discussion.

Mark Hill, Green councillor for Fishergate, said he thought the consultation was flawed and that many of the votes for the county pool had been by organisations who were representing large numbers of people.

He said: "It strikes me that the Liberal Democrats are the only party that is arguing for the community pool option."

Updated: 10:49 Wednesday, August 20, 2003