A public swimming pool will close in a matter of weeks after council bosses agreed to sell it off.

Tiverton Pool and Fitness Centre in Selly Oak will be shut down some time in May before it re-opens as a gym-only facility following the purchase by University of Birmingham.

Birmingham City Council cabinet chiefs rubber-stamped the sale on Tuesday (April 17) whilst also agreeing to off-load Birmingham Research Park and further land at Vincent Drive to the university, which already occupied both sites on a long-term lease basis.

The value of the sales has not been disclosed with the move formally approved in a private session, although the closure of the baths will the save the council £350,000 a year.

The facility at Tiverton Road was touted for the axe in 2013 but has remained in use until now due to a delay in the opening of the university’s new Olympic-sized pool on Bristol Road South as well as a setback in approving plans for the replacement Northfield Leisure Centre around three miles away.

The latter facility is due to open later this month or early May which will trigger the belated closure of the Tiverton Road site.

The university will drain and fill both pools to free up as much floor space as possible in a bid to create a gym for up to 3,000 people open to students and members of the public.

They stated it will help meet a huge demand in the area with its existing gym massively oversubscribed.

The council declared that none of the three sites were strategically important while admitting it had a repairs and maintenance backlog at the baths.

Birmingham Research Park was developed in the late 1980s and 1990s which the university has held on a 125 lease agreement since 1985.

The three acre site, east of Vincent Drive, employs around 440 people and sees in the region of 18,000 visitors a year.

It is considered a key component of the life sciences ecosystem of Edgbaston and is a primary location for new businesses to start and grow.

On the opposite side of Vincent Drive is a 15 acre plot which the university leased on a 960-year agreement from the council in 1972. It is home to a range of educational establishments.