Nurse, who made 257 league appearances for Swansea in two spells between 1955 and 1971, said he felt uncomfortable with recent developments at the club.

Australian-based businessman Tony Petty took over the club a month ago and has implemented several controversial cost-cutting initiatives.

Said Nurse: "I live in the Swansea community and I don't feel happy at the way things are going at the club.

"I'm sad to leave the club I love, but with the strength of feeling in the community, I felt it was time to go."

"That was to stop any other person from doing so," he said.

"While I own them I know that they will be linked to the club as long as I required or as long as the club required them to be."

Nurse said he has also spent some �30,000 in constructing a bar in one of the stadium stands.

But he stressed that he has no wish to own the club itself.

Petty said he had reluctantly accepted Nurse's resignation.

"Mel obviously has his own reasons, and I wish him all the best."

Nurse is the third director to leave the club's board since Petty took over, and was the last remaining executive from the pre-Petty era.