Birmingham's famous Stechford Cascades water slides are likely to be lost when the pool is replaced as part of a £36 million overhaul of sport centres.

Stechford Cascades is one of six new council-owned pools being built in Birmingham and they will, along with other existing sports facilities, be run by private operators under a 15-year contract.

But minimum specifications for the new pool do not include slides, water falls, bubble machines and a walk in 'beach' which attract many visitors to the facility.

Instead, the selected contractor, which is to build the new leisure centre on the Station Road car park ready to open in April 2017, will only have to provide a 25-metre pool, a learner pool, a gym, sports hall, community room and café.

Coun Sue Anderson (Lib Dem, Sheldon), chairman of the Yardley district committee, said there were also concerns over the loss of a 200-seat spectator area as the pool had been used for schools competitions.

"School competitions have been there for years and years, but now there are just places for 40 spectators to look through the glass from the café area.

"We have already accepted the cascades will have to go," she said, explaining that staffing of the slides was expensive.

"So it will no longer be called the cascades."

The council's Labour deputy leader Ian Ward said that a new pool at Ickneild Port Loop, in Monument Road, Ladywood, would become the new centre for school competitions.

Meanwhile, Councillor Robert Alden (Cons, Erdington) has complained that the proposed location for the new Erdington pool is on the Hart Road car park, which he claims will create undue pressure for parking spaces in the town centre.

He said that new developments nearby, including a Sainsbury's, would increase that demand.

"I would ask that we put in place a residents parking scheme before we start construction work on the car park," he added.

Other sites for new pools include Shard End Leisure Centre, in Leaford Road, while a site for Northfield's new pool has yet to be decided.