A new site has been announced for an £11m new swimming pool which the council has pledged to build in Morden.

Morden Park Leisure Centre will be moved to the other side of South Thames College from inside Morden Park.

Because it is on a different site, it will allow a new £11m pool to be built without closing the leisure centre.

Merton Council leader Councillor Stephen Alambritis said the site would be returned to green space.

Four sites around the college in London Road in Morden were considered.

The first option was to keep it on the same site in London Road, the second would have been behind the college, the third was to the right hand side of the college where it will be, and the fourth would have seen it move to near the Baitul Futuh Mosque.

The announcement on Friday cam after years of delays in replacing a pool which has long suffered from a problems forcing repeated closures for maintenance work.

They include ceiling tiles crashing into the pool, lengthy closures due to boiler problems and leaks and poor changing room conditions.

In 2010 plans emerged to rebuild the 33m pool with the council pledging to find £11m, however the plans never materialised.

Several years later, Labour councillors renewed their ambition to rebuild the pool and confirmed that £11m had been set aside.

Coun Alambritis said the cost of the project would be £10m, with £1m set aside for ‘administrative costs.’

He said: "We want it open by the end of 2017."

Coun Alambritis said if the council renovated the current site in London Road, it would have to close the pool for 18 months while work was carried out.

"We didn’t want that, we want people to continue going to the swimming pool," he said.

An interactive council consultation on the pool had 400 responses.

A website created especially for the consultation allowed people to choose their own facilities within the budget and submit their ideas to the council.

The new leisure centre will be discussed at the cabinet meeting on Monday, November 10.