Campaigners fighting to keep open a town's outdoor pool may be been granted a reprieve.

Councillors have asked for more time to consider a report recommending the closure of Portishead's open-air pool, and a decision has been put off until the new year.

North Somerset Council Planning and Economic Development (SPED) scrutiny and policy panel had been tasked with the job of scrutinising a report on the future of the pool, prepared by a special review panel set up by the authority.

The review panel, which took five months to complete the report on the future of the pool, is recommending the seafront attraction is closed for good because it costs the council £130,000 a year to run. It is also recommending the site be put up for sale, which would net the authority £600,000, and the cash ploughed into improving other leisure facilities.

The SPED panel were given just 17 working days to scrutinise the recommendation before the matter goes before the council's executive on October 28 for a final decision.

Now SPED members have asked for the timescale to be extended to four months – a decision which will have to be rubber-stamped by the authority's leader Nigel Ashton.

SPED panel vice-chairman Councillor David Pasley said: "We have asked for an extension to the time given to scrutinise the review panel report.

"To allow us to carry out a fair and thorough job, we considered that 17 working days was not long enough and wanted the deadline to be extended. I have written to the council leader explaining that we need to do a thorough job because the future of the pool is a major issue to the people of Portishead."

The call for an extension has been welcomed by people campaigning to save the pool from closure.

Pool campaigner Annette Hennessey said: "I am very pleased that this decision has been taken and hope the extension to the timescale will be agreed.

"A few weeks is not long enough to scrutinise this report and the fact that calls have now been made to extend the timescale to four months means there is a better chance the report will be scrutinised properly. However, I do believe that the review panel report is flawed in the first place and full of inaccurate and inconsistent information. I think the SPED panel will have to basically repeat the investigation to make sure it gets all of the facts right.

"One example of an error is that in the report it says that between August 21 and 31 no one visited the pool at all. Sadly, there are other glaring errors such as this in the report."

The pool, which, which opened in the 1960s and is one of only a handful of open-air facilities remaining in the South West, closed for the 2008 summer season on September 28.

A fresh campaign has now been set up by local residents Roger Whitfield and David Coombes to save the pool from closure.

A public protest outside the pool is being planned for today between 4pm and 4.30pm to show the council the strength of support for keeping the attraction open.