PRESSURE is mounting on the Environment Agency as opposition grows to its plans to fill in a former boating lake in Southampton.

The agency wants to turn the former family attraction at Southampton Outdoor Sports Centre into a recreation meadow, and city councillors will decide on the scheme next week.

But campaigners against the plan argue that not enough consultation has been carried out, while they also say it is a vital breeding ground for local wildlife.

As previously reported,the lake was once an attraction for families from across the city, but it has been disused since 2004.

It is currently filled with mountains of earth as a result of Environment Agency flood alleviation work in the Dale Valley area.

The agency has handed in a planning application to turn the lake into a family-friendly wildlife meadow.

The city council’s planning panel will have the final say on whether the scheme goes ahead at a meeting at 9.30am on Tuesday at the Civic Centre.

The panel will also be addressed by concerned residents, who have formed the Friends of Southampton Sports Centre in a bid to defeat the scheme.

Despite holding two drop-in sessions for the public to find out more about the site, the Environment Agency has been criticised for not doing enough consultation.

And the agency now admits that it should have carried out wider consultation.

One member of the campaign group, Penny Hastings, claims that the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust considers the site to be a well recorded breeding ground for amphibians like the great crested newt and the common toad.

She said: “There was a very strong feeling against the idea of the boating lake being turned into a wild flower meadow, and anger at the way things have been done.

“If you go and look at the boating lake, it looks like it is already gone.

That is not the case.

“The members of the group all love the sports centre but feel that much more could be made of it – a café, a water feature –maybe a boating lake or a splash pool.

“These are all popular ideas which could be made to work.”