Purley's swimming pool is to be shut down, Croydon Council announced today.

The pool, at Purley Leisure Centre, will close in April because the council said it cannot afford the £781,000 cost of "a range of urgent maintenance issues".

The centre's gym and other fitness facilities will remain open and be expanded.

The leisure centre is owned by the council but its operation is contracted out to private firm Fusion Lifestyle.

Council leader Tony Newman said: "We cannot, now the new swimming pool in Waddon is up and running, keep the Purley swimming pool open at the cost of a million pounds next year. 

"It has been allowed to fall into a state of disrepair anyway and at the cost of a million pounds with a brand new pool just down the road, we can't justify keeping that open."

The council said money saved would help to fund the "regeneration" of Purley.

Nathan Elvery, the council's chief executive, added: "It's a pragmatic solution. You make a choice that you carry on literally dropping money into a swimming pool or you make the decision that that area of Purley is regenerated and in order to do that you are going to have to close the facility anyway."

But campaigners who fought against the proposed closure in the past branded the decision "stupid".

Fred Wallis, who led the Save Purley Pool campaign after the threat of closure first emerged in 2006, said: "It might be that to make it up to Olympic standard would cost about £600,000 or £700,000.

"To run the pool and keep it going would cost very little more than they're paying Fusion to run the pool. 

"When you think a quarter of a million people use the pool a year and there are 11 schools that are using the pool, it seems absolutely stupid."

Mr Wallis, who pledged to fight back against the planned closure, added: "They talk about Waddon being alternative but Waddon has got 30 parking spaces and if that's full you can't park within two miles of it."

The closure was announced as part of the councils 2015/16 budget proposals.

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Fred Wallis, part of the Save Purley Pool campaign, has promised the fight the closure