ALMOST 1,000 residents have signed a petition against plans to formally abandon a replacement swimming pool near York's Barbican Centre.

The petition was being handed this afternoon to City of York Council's planning committee by Labour councillor Tracey Simpson-Laing.

It urges the committee not to reverse a legal agreement attached to planning permission for the redevelopment of land alongside the leisure centre with flats and a hotel.

The Section 106 agreement demanded that a swimming pool should be built on the nearby Kent Street coach park to compensate for the loss of the Barbican pool, which closed in 2004. The council has been asked to change it to an agreement obliging developers to give the council £6.4 million for the land, so that new and improved sports facilities can be built elsewhere.

Officers have warned that, if the authority continues to insist on the replacement pool being built, it will jeopardise the city's two other existing pools, Yearsley and Edmund Wilson.

The council hopes to use proceeds from the land sale to refurbish the Edmund Wilson Baths or build a new pool on land at Oaklands School, and also to contribute towards a proposed joint scheme with the University of York for a new pool at Heslington.

But officers say the developers, Barbican Venture (York) Ltd might pull out of a deal to buy the land, causing further delays in the site's redevelopment.

Steve Galloway, the Liberal Democrat council leader, has said the change was an "enabling amendment", which gives the authority more flexibility in using the capital receipt from the land sale.

He said it would mean the council was obliged to spend the £6 million capital receipt on sports and swimming facilities in the city, but without it being tied to the Kent Street site.

However, Labour has said the top priority should be the provision of a pool in the city centre.

Coun Simpson-Laing said the response to its petition showed the scale of feeling in the city about the Barbican centre, "and what a massive mistake the Lib Dems have made by deciding to go back on their promise and abandon swimming on the site."

She claimed: "This is our last chance to save the day regarding this as, if the planning committee votes against changing the agreement, then they will not be able to proceed as planned.

"I am urging everybody on the planning committee to do what is right and refuse the application to change the agreement.

"The city, even if the university application succeeds at inquiry, will be short of swimming provision.

"York desperately needs a city centre swimming facility and this is probably the last chance to keep that possibility alive."