Purley swimming pool is set to remain a permanent fixture after Croydon Council rowed back on plans close it.

Proposals set to be discussed at cabinet on Monday include plans for new facilities including a pool, at the current Purley Leisure Centre site.

The council announced in late 2014 that the pool would close in April 2015 but put the closure plans on ice following a huge outcry from swimmers.

At the time the authority warned the reprieve was only likely to be temporary, but said the pool would remain open “until it can no longer be used”.

RELATED: Closure of Purley Pool postponed

But the Croydon local plan, which outlines the council’s strategic priorities for the next two decades, details plans for new leisure facilities.

The proposals also include plans for a health services, shops and houses at the Purley High Street site by 2026.

It is not yet known if the leisure centre will get a new pool or if the current one, which the council has previously described as having “maintenance issues”, will be upgraded.

A council spokesman said: “The draft plan sets out a blueprint for a wide range of developments over coming years, but it is not designed to set down exactly how each element will be delivered.

“It will go to cabinet on Monday before a further round of consultation in the autumn. After this it will be formally submitted and reviewed by the Secretary of State next year.”

Plans to shut the pool in April last year were withdrawn after talks between councillors and campaigners, who were set to protest at a council meeting and deliver a petition signed by more than 6,000 people on the day the reprieve was announced.

The council had said it could not afford the £781,000 cost of "a range of urgent maintenance issues", but agreed to keep the pool - operated by contractor Fusion - open in the short term.

Council leader Tony Newman said there is a “very clear case” for a pool in Purley and he was “delighted” with the commitment in the local plan.

He said: “What the commitment in the local plan means is we can have a discussion about delivering a brand new pool in Purley in the safe knowledge that is a very clear commitment in terms of planning policies to build one.

“If we were able to find a site for a new one in due course it certainly opens up the opportunity to build the new one while keeping the old one open for as long as possible.

“What the local plan emphatically confirms, and certainly what I have been arguing for the last year, is there is a very clear case for a pool in Purley as well as the one in Waddon.”

Fred Wallis, who led the Save Purley Pool campaign, said: “It is such a centre point for Purley and that is recognised.

“It is quite busy now, I think all parts of the day have a good following and there is a disabled group that meets there on Friday nights.

“If the council builds more flats, which the council intends on doing within Purley, all the people moving in have got to have things to do.”

Mr Wallis said he hoped the council would approve the plans.

He added: “There was so much support from all the residents associations in the south of the borough and it [the pool] is needed for the south of the borough.”

Cllr Newman said the authority had been working with the community, adding: “People did question the commitment but I am absolutely delighted to see we have committed to the pool in Purley in the long term.

“It is beyond its use-by date in terms of the machinery driving it but there is a lot of work going in to it to keep it open.”

The local plan will be discussed at a cabinet meeting on Monday.