A MUCH-loved leisure hub which residents fought to save from closure will be given a "complete face-lift" worth £615,000.

Abingdon’s Abbey Meadow, visited by thousands each season, was set for a half-million pound cash injection to revitalise the outdoor pool and park area.

Now, Vale of White Horse District Council released has increased its budget by more than £100,000 and details of the the improvements for the first time.

The plans pledge to transform the pool building and add new public toilets and changing rooms - but the pool itself will not change.

Abingdon Town Council Sandy Lovatt, who has long said the town should make better use of its riverside areas, said: "It was always the pool building that was the sordid bit.

"The trouble is that it's only about 60 people a week who use the pool, it's very weather-dependent. We have got a very vociferous crowd trying to keep it open - everyone gets sentimental but no-one uses it.

"What's more important is Abbey Meadow and the playground. I take my grandchildren down there and they love it – it's a fantastic place. People can pull up their boats and get free mooring for a few days - hopefully it will bring people into the town itself. It's a pleasant spot."

The play area will be upgraded to create two children's adventure playgrounds, funded by a £45,000 donation from the developer of the town's Old Gaol.

Crazy golf will be replaced by the extended playground but the pitch and putt will stay.

A multi-use games area will replace the tennis courts and there will be new picnic tables and seating by the river.

Vale cabinet member for corporate strategy Elaine Ware said the council would seek extra grants for future improvements, adding: "It isn't the end of our ambitions for Abbey Meadow".

The pool was saved from closure in 2005 and 2015 with help from campaign group Friends of Abbey Meadow Outdoor Pool and the Abingdon Herald.

Last year more than 2,500 people signed a petition calling for the pool to stay open, after the council released three options for its future - two of which would have seen it closed down.

The remaining scenario, which outlined plans to "refurbish/ upgrade pool", was favoured by 81 per cent of 3,157 respondents during consultation last year.

Friends spokesman Peter Harbour said he was "gobsmacked" that there was no plan to improve the pool itself.

He said: "Failure to refurbish the pool after forty years of neglect, with two thirds of a million on the table is madness: an opportunity lost.

"Refurbishment is a waste of money ignoring the pool, which needs to be relined.

"The pool was meant to attract swimmers for exercise and safety in a riverside town. You can't swim in a refurbished changing room."

He said the learner pool was poorly-designed and should be replaced with a beach area like at Oxford's Hinksey Pool, which he described as "a modern, exciting and commercially successful pool that Abingdon would do well to emulate."

A spokesman for the Vale said: "Our aim is to attract more people to the Abbey Meadow area throughout the year, not just during summer. It’s important that we make improvements to the surrounding area."

The main bulk of work on the facility is expected to start this autumn and finish in spring 2017.