CAMPAIGNERS have won their battle to keep London’s oldest swimming baths as a leisure centre.

Residents have been fighting to keep the disused Forest Hill Pools, in Dartmouth Road, Forest Hill, as swimming baths since it closed in 2006.

They demanded the building be refurbished while preserving its Victorian features.

At a Lewisham Council meeting last night, Lewisham Mayor Sir Steve Bullock delighted campaigners by announcing he will invest an extra £2.9m to develop a new pool on the site incorporating the building’s historic front.

Tim Walder, spokesman for campaign groups Save the Face of Forest Hill and Keep Swimming in Forest Hill, said the Mayor’s decision was everything he hoped for.

He said: “I’m very pleased because obviously we won the Keep Swimming in Forest Hill campaign and I think everyone is pleased.

“I’m hoping pretty soon people will see some action around the Forest Hill Pools site and hopefully in the next year or two we will see the swimming pools open.

“It’s been a long battle and both sides are quite weary, but I think we’ve got there now.”

The announcement followed a public consultation which gave people two options for the pools which was closed in 2006 due to safety fears.

Under the first option a new leisure centre would be built on the current site in Dartmouth Road, but the council warned this would not be finished until 2015 and would require more funding.

A second option, favoured by Lewisham Mayor Sir Steve Bullock, would see a new centre built by 2011 at Willow Way, Sydenham, partly funded by developing the current site for housing.

But a last minute third option was announced last week which proposed using extra Government funding to develop a new leisure centre on the current site and to start work immediately.

Making the decision to choose this new option, Sir Steve said: “All along, my focus has been to have swimming in this area as soon as possible.

“Once it became clear in the past few weeks that we could build this new pool and keep the frontage, I knew this would be the best decision to make for everyone who lives in this area.”