A new £8 million swimming pool in Tipton is likely be built right in the heart of the town.

Councillors in the town have identified wasteland which used to be occupied by a now-demolished housing estate for the new leisure centre, near to Tipton Fire Station.

The site of the former Little Burton estate is close to the geographical centre of Tipton which is used as the centrepoint when assessing school admissions.

The council-owned land, off Alexandra Road and Upper Church Lane, has been vacant since 2000 when the old houses were cleared and had been expected to be used for new homes. But Tipton Green ward member and Sandwell education chief, Councillor Ian Jones, said the councillors in the town had now identified it as the preferred site for the new swimming pool.

Sandwell Council’s decision-making cabinet was today set to approve in principle £20 million plans to build two new swimming centres in the borough, including one in Tipton to replace the existing town baths in Queens Road, as well a new facility in West Bromwich, with land yet to be identified for that scheme.

Councillor Jones said the Little Burton site was virtually the centre point of Tipton so would give ideal access to families across Tipton Green, Princes End and Great Bridge.

“It was earmarked for housing but we think this is ideal for the new swimming pool because it is right in the middle of Tipton,” he said.

“As members we would recommend this. It would only be if there are major groundwork problems that we couldn’t build it on there but otherwise we will be saying we want it here.

“It will be bigger and better than the old site in Queens Road where the baths are at the moment.

“We didn’t want to knock them down first and rebuild on the same site because that would mean two years without any baths.

“The plan isn’t so site specific in West Bromwich and they have got to do a bit more work than we do to identify a site.”