A LAST ditch attempt to save the popular Temple Cowley Pools complex from closure will be made tonight.

Opposition parties at Oxford City Council will table alternative budgets that keep the Temple Road baths open until at least 2015.

The bid will please campaigners who have collected more than 10,000 signatures in a year-long fight to save the pool from closure.

Under plans by the Labour administration, the pool will be sold off in 2012 to help finance a new £8.5m swimming complex at Blackbird Leys.

The full council meeting at 5pm will set a four-year budget and £9m will be cut, due in part to a reduction in Government funding.

The meeting will be streamed live on the web for the first time.

What is up for discussion is where those savings are made or how extra cash is generated.

However, last minute budget horse-trading looks unlikely.

Labour tightened its grip on the council at the 2010 elections, gaining an overall majority of four, and will not need the support of other groups to push through its plans.

Its budget includes the loss of 110 council jobs, charges for garden waste collections, and cuts to services such as street wardens, noise control and environmental health.

Parking fees will also be increased.

But the budget picture is less bleak than first painted after the council revealed in January it was £875,000 better off than it thought.

Labour deputy Leader Ed Turner said no member wanted to propose the cuts.

He added: “We are seeing 25 per cent of our Government grant chopped over two years. We are trying our best to safeguard jobs and protect services.”

The authority’s share of council tax will be frozen next year with the help of central government cash but will then rise by three per cent each year for three years.

The second largest political party at the Town Hall, the Liberal Democrats, will put forward plans for area committees to remain in place and for the council’s grant budget to be increased by £200,000.

It would be paid for by axing two more middle management posts and cutting councillor allowances by ten per cent.

Group leader Stephen Brown said: “We support the continued operation of Temple Cowley Pools until a suitable alternative is found.

“We are not convinced Blackbird Leys is it.”

Green councillors will also call for Temple Cowley Pools to be saved in a budget that would stop the St Clements car park closure and keep free garden waste collections.

This would be paid for through increased fees, cutting senior staff salaries and dipping into council reserves and contingency funds.

Green group leader David Williams said: “We put money in reserves for a rainy day. This is that rainy day."