UNION members have today thrown their financial muscle behind a campaign to save a council pool ahead of a public meeting tonight on its future.

Oaklands Swimming Pool in Southampton has been shut since May putting 33 jobs at risk.

The Labour -run city council has launched a consultation on the future of the pool after halting repairs and voting to withdraw a £235,000 subsidy from next year.

The council’s Unison branch secretary Mike Tucker said his union was “actively supporting” and financing the campaign by rebel Labour ward councillors Don Thomas and Keith Morrell to save the pool. Thousands of posters are being printed and handed out.

“We’re disappointed that one of the first acts of the new administration was to close the pool but accept it’s been underfunded by the previous administration,” Mr Tucker said.

“We think making the closure decision without alternative facilities was the wrong one.”

The Unite shop stewards committee at the council is also backing have the campaign.

Unite convenor Mark Wood said: “Unite puts the blame for the closure solely on the coalition Government’s austerity policies and the neglect of the pool by the previous Southampton Conservative administration.

“Unite is opposed to any disciplinary sanctions taken against Cllrs Morrell and Thomas and hopes that the Labour administration will reverse its proposal to close this important community asset.”

Youngsters this week rallied behind community leaders and others fighting to save the closed pool, which is popular with the elderly and disabled.

A residents’ association warned the local Labour party it would be punished at the ballot box over the decision.

Council leader Cllr Richard Williams has declined an invitation to attend the meeting because of a prior engagement.

However Cabinet member for leisure Cllr Warwick Payne will be attending tonight’s meeting. He said he was keen to identify people or clubs from the community who may be interested in running the pool.

He said a deal could see the council retain responsibility for the bricks and mortar, although he said it would cost between £10,000 and £230,000 in immediate repairs to get it reopened.

Cllr Payne blamed the state of the pool, which has an estimated repair bill of £485,000 over the next five to ten years, on the previous Conservative administration.

He said each of the annual 80,000 swims had been costing the taxpayers between £3 and £10 a visit.

He said the fact that no new full-time member of staff had been hired for two years, and a third of the staff were on temporary contracts, suggested the Tories had been running the pool into the ground. Cllr Payne said 19 of the 21 full-time staff had been redeployed.

Conservatives had pledged to keep the pool open until a new pool could be opened as part of the redevelopment of Lordshill District Centre.

Cllr Payne said Labour was “thinking very big” about plans to transform Lordshill and said the public would be consulted about what community facilities they wanted as part of a masterplan, which could include a pool.

The public meeting is being held at Lordshill Church, Lordshill District Centre, tonight from 7pm.