A campaign to save Belvedere splash park from closure is holding its first meeting tomorrow.

The Save Our Splash Park campaign began as a Facebook page on Wednesday and gained more than 2,200 likes in 24 hours.

That figure is now nearly 2,900 with supporters preparing to gather for the first time at the 5th Erith Scouts HQ at Christian Gray Hall in Belvedere tomorrow at 2pm.

Up for debate is a strategy for saving the popular attraction, which is under threat of closure as part of £50.8 million in savings Bexley Council says it needs to make by 2018.

The council says it will cost between £300,000 and £500,000 to replace the water system, which currently struggles to keep bacteria levels down.

Between £150,000 and £200,000 would alter the existing plant and filtration system, but this may not solve the hygiene issues which meant the park had to be closed for cleaning two days a week last summer rather than the usual one.

Erith ward Labour representative and shadow cabinet member for community safety and leisure, Councillor Joe Ferreira, said: "There has been a water facility on the site of the splash park for well over 100 years and for the council to close it without fully exploring all the options available would be a disaster for the borough and for the local community.

"The health and safety reports are obviously alarming, but the key is to look at how we can secure the site's future as a safe water facility for generations to come."

The park opened in 2005 and is one of the largest free wet play parks in the country, with a lagoon surrounding a desert island and a mini-‘beach’, equipped with water sprinklers, showers, bubble jets and sprays.

An unnamed Bexley company has offered to turn the park into a normal playground, but without the water features.