More than three years after Purley Leisure Centre closed its doors for good, plans for a redevelopment of the site have gone on show for the first time.
As well as a new swimming pool, the plans include around 250 new homes for older people, including a 12-storey tower.
Thousands of Purley locals signed a petition to save the pool after it closed at the start of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020.
The leisure centre was running at a loss of £150,000 a year and would have cost more than £3 million to refurbish.
Mayor Jason Perry previously said he would reopen the current pool but last week said this would ‘not be sustainable due to the extensive disrepair’.
Instead, the site is expected to be redeveloped by Polaska, which owns it, to include a new leisure centre which would be run by the council.
This week, the plans went on show to the public and the emerging proposals were published. The company said it was given the brief to draw up plans for the site’s redevelopment in June 2022.
The site includes the existing leisure centre and the old Sainsbury’s and multi-storey car park, the super market closed in 2001. The plans include 245 ‘later living’ flats across four buildings between four and 12-storeys tall.
Polaska said the plans will also include shop space and a new public square which will front the High Street and include a route to Purley Station.
The leisure centre would include a 25metre six lane pool and 13metre shallow training pool. The new centre would also have an 80 station gym, fitness studio and cafe.
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On its website, Polaska says the leisure centre will be built before work starts on the flats. The company said: “Critical to aligning these proposals to the wider vision of Croydon Council for Purley is the provision of a new, modern leisure centre. This will be located at high street level with level access from the new public square.”
Polaska hopes to submit a planning application in September and if it is approved by Spring 2024 it would start work that year.
A timeline for the project estimates the leisure centre would open at the start of 2026 while the flats would be completed in the summer of 2027.
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