A RESCUE package looks to have secured the immediate futures of Oxford Ice Rink and Temple Cowley Pools.

Although both crumbling leisure facilities are expected to be demolished within a few years' time, Oxford City Council is set to invest £360,000 to keep them going.

A study into the future of the 24-year-old rink in Oxpens was only recently commissioned by the council. Many now expect it to make way for a hotel and conference facility in a regenerated West End.

The option of building an ice rink and swimming pool together to create a new energy-efficient facility is also being actively investigated by consultants and officers.

But the city council has been told that essential work is desperately needed if the ice rink and Temple Cowley Pools are to remain operational.

The council executive is poised to spend £185,000 on the ice rink and £173,250 on the Cowley pools to avoid closures.

The West End area action plan, setting out how the quarter of Oxford should be developed, concluded: "The rink would require almost complete re-development to bring it up to the standard of a modern facility.

"Oxford City Council is unable to generate extra income from its ice rink, as it in in poor structural condition and is too small to stage entertainment or top-level ice hockey."

Calling for a full investigation it added: "One option would be to provide a better facility on another site, possibly near the ring road. Locating an ice rink alongside a swimming pool would bring benefits in terms of energy efficiency and economies of scale."

The consultant, Strategic Leisure, is presently exploring future options. But a report to the city council executive says: "The first stage of this work has been concluded and finds that the ice rink is a much-loved and well-used facility that Oxford should look to continue to provide."

Money needs to be spent refurbishing the ice resurfacing machine, overhauling three compressors and replacing air cooling units. "During warm weather the system has difficulty controlling atmosphere, thus the refrigeration plant is subject to greater load which increases energy consumption and CO2 emissions," says the report.

The desperately poor condition of the Cowley pools is spelt out in a separate report to the city council's executive, which meets on Monday. The facility, used by thousands of swimmers each year, looks like having to close in January for five weeks for repair work.

Jim Campbell, executive member for better finances, admitted the council faced a tough dilemma.

He said: "We have a new leisure vision for the city, with some radical changes in what the city provides. But it is a five- to ten-year time frame. At the same time we want to go on using these facilities for the next two years at least. If we don't do this work they will be unusable. It is not a happy situation."

News of a big injection of money into the ice rink delighted Chris O'Neil, of the Oxford City Stars ice hockey team. "I don't believe the ice rink's condition is that bad, compared with other places that we visit around the country. We are assured by staff that much of the machinery is still in good working order."

He believed there were huge energy-saving advantages of having a pool and ice rink side by side. He hoped such a facility could become the leisure jewel in the redeveloped West End.

Councillors are expected to fund another major conditional survey of the Temple Cowley Pool building, constructed in the 1930s.

The priority is to repair failing heat pumps and damaged ventilation system, which are resulting in energy waste and high carbon dioxide emissions. Last year, the council had to spend £60,000 to replace boilers.

Leisure operations manager at Oxford City Council, Steve Holt, said Temple Cowley Pool needed complete refurbishment or total redevelopment.