The fight for a swimming pool to be included as part of controversial academy plans for Peers School is set to move up a gear.

Oxford City Council is to press Oxfordshire County Council, the local education authority, for a pool as part of the new facility in Littlemore.

As it stands the current Peers Sports and Leisure Centre would be flattened to make way for the new academy - but there is no provision for a pool.

The expected closure of the swimming pool has angered users, scores of which are expected to lobby city councillors tomorrow. The city council wants to wash its hands of the ageing and crumbling facility, which it runs on behalf of County Hall.

Deputy city council leader David Rundle, whose responsibilities include leisure provision, has promised to put pressure on county council leader Keith Mitchell.

He told the Oxford Mail: "I am asking for a high-level meeting with the county council to see exactly what will appear on the site.

"I will put the case for a swimming pool to be on that site, but we can't run it. It doesn't fit in with our vision of having two major pools - one of competition size and one that is family-friendly."

Last week, 30 OAPs turned up at the Town Hall to urge a re-think on closing Peers.

Notwithstanding the academy plans, which have yet to be agreed, city leisure chiefs have already said the facility is under-used and expensive to run.

At the heart of campaigners' concerns is a fear of losing their morning swimming club, the Sunday Larks. Campaigner George Cooper, 86, of Wynbush Road, Rose Hill, said: "Money has been spent on the Ferry and Blackbird Leys leisure centres but when it comes to Rose Hill we seem to be out of it."

Just 71,644 people used Peers Sports Centre in 2006-7 - almost a quarter of the number who visited the revamped Ferry Sports Centre in Summertown.

It cost the council £2.91 for every one who visited. According to an official council report, Peers would need "substantial investment to bring it up to modern standards" - and at least £200,000 of "immediate work".

And at Christmas last year, the bacteria that can cause the potentially-fatal Legionnaire's disease was found in a tap.

Oxford Lord Mayor John Tanner, who is leading the fight to save the pool at Peers, said: "This scandalous decision should be reversed."