OBSTACLES which could lie in the way of two new York swimming pools emerged today.

Leisure bosses announced last week that they want to build a £4 million pool on the Oaklands School site to replace the ageing Edmund Wilson Baths.

They also said they hoped to go into partnership with the University of York to build a new competition standard pool in eastern York.

Funding towards both pools would come from the sale of the Barbican site, which they said would no longer generate sufficient money to pay for a replacement Barbican pool on the Kent Street coach park. A report by leisure chief Charlie Croft to City of York Council's executive has now revealed further details of the new pools proposals - and warned how they might still not go ahead as planned.

Mr Croft says the Oaklands proposals depend on the Priory Medical Group vacating their site near the school to provide essential car parking space, with one possibility being a land swap with the current Edmund Wilson site.

"This in turn is dependent on the PCT (primary care trust) being willing to proceed in an acceptable time frame and able to finance their scheme. This is currently being pursued with the PCT.

"If it does not prove possible to proceed with the Oaklands site, for example because the additional land cannot be obtained, then it is recommended that the previously drawn up scheme for Edmund Wilson (a refurbishment of the existing pool) is taken forward instead."

Meanwhile, Mr Croft says that the earliest a new pool could be completed in eastern York would be 2009.

He says the pool would be subject to planning, and the university was not yet committed to proceeding with it and confirming their part of the funding.

The council plans to put £2 million from the Barbican site sale towards its partnership with the university, but Mr Croft warns that additional funding will need to be identified to meet the costs before such a scheme could proceed.

A university spokesman said today that its aspiration was to provide a high-quality swimming pool, which would include access for disabled people. He said the university had approached the council in the past to discuss whether some form of pool partnership might be possible, but it had not yet decided whether to proceed.

Updated: 10:43 Wednesday, February 01, 2006