Pool president Sam Kane said the committee was seeking detail about the motion, passed by six of the nine councillors, as it planned for the future.

But a master plan for the reserve involves a vote by another group - the Golden Square Bowls and Croquet Club.

BENDIGO councillors spent about an hour passionately debating the future of the Golden Square Recreation Reserve this week.

But a vote by the 180 members of the Golden Square Bowls and Croquet Club could change the direction of a master plan.

Council on Wednesday voted to keep the Golden Square Pool as part of the reserve.

The option they voted in line with called for the bowls and croquet club to be relocated from its home of almost 100 years.

The club is open to the idea of moving from the site, which it owns.

But the deal would have to be attractive enough to sway 75 per cent of its members, when put to a vote.

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Golden Square Bowls and Croquet Club chair Allan Slingo said Wednesday's decision only affected the club if the council saw fit to negotiate and to purchase an alternative site.

Otherwise: "As far as I'm concerned, it's a dead duck - we stay put."

"If they want us to move out there, it's not just a matter of moving the greens out there," Mr Slingo said.

"We would want what every other regional city in Victoria has got and that's an indoor bowling centre.

"Bendigo's way behind the eight ball, as far as that goes."

Council on Wednesday committed to progress priority plans for all of the reserve's user groups, "with a solution developed that creates certainty."

That information would be used to provide a "fully costed plan to put in place for the purposes of advocacy to all potential funding avenues."

The Golden Square Pool committee said it was "incredibly thankful" for the council's decision.

The Golden Square Senior Football Netball Club was disappointed the original motion, which reflected the advice of the project consultants, was defeated.

"We feel it is going to produce further uncertainty for the precinct and even more of a delay in really getting to some sort of an end goal for the completion of a master plan," Brendan Stewart, the club's president, said.

But he said the club accepted the council's decision.

Golden Square Cricket Club president Ian Kellett thought council probably missed an opportunity for "more longer-term, big-picture thinking" for the precinct with the original motion's defeat.

But he considered Wednesday's decision positive, having met the club's needs and resolved 10 years of uncertainty.

"We can see a way forward... there's a plan," Mr Kellett said.

"We just hope the council expedite developments and get stuck into it."

The original motion would have seen the pool decommissioned and the bowls and croquet club relocated.