Inquest on Westbury Swimming Pool begins
11:27am Friday 22nd February 2013 in News
Wiltshire Council staff Phil McMullan, left, and Stephen Jones, right, take a look at the ‘blistering’ base of the pool with manager James Dennison
An investigation into what went wrong with the new lining at Westbury Swimming Pool will be held by Wiltshire Council when the pool closes again on March 4 – just weeks after it was re-opened.
The council said the pool has to be closed again for four weeks so repair work can be carried out on the lining material used by sub-contractors, which has failed and appears to be ‘blistering’ off. They added that there was no evidence the contractors had done anything wrong.
The pool closed in November for seven weeks for essential maintenance, re-opening on January 14.
The council will now investigate the issues with the pool lining with principal contractor Wessex Building Services Ltd and the lining manufacturers, once the pool has been drained, to find the source of the problem.
Stephen Jones, building maintenance manager for Wiltshire Council, said: “We don’t know what happened yet, but it appears the material failed, so we need to drain the pool to investigate what went wrong.
“The product used by the sub-contractors is a nationally recognised product for this type of repair, which has been used lots of times before up and down the country, so to say we are disappointed is an understatement.
“We will now investigate with the manufacturer of the product and the contractors why this has happened and try and fix it as quickly as we possibly can to minimise disruption to those who use the pool.
“This is a very unusual occurrence and the investigation will focus on finding the cause of the problem. We want to find a long-term and positive solution as soon as possible.”
The council, in partnership with DC Leisure who manage the pool, is advising swimmers to check their website for further information and updates.
Surveyor Phil McMullan said: “The quality of the product means that the manufacturers offer a 15-year warranty with it, which shows how confident they are.
“We are determined to get it sorted as quickly as we can, but the investigation will be very thorough. The work should take three to four weeks, but it depends on what we find, so it’s all speculation at the moment.”
The repairs and any losses due to the second closure should be covered under warranty, so there will be no cost to the taxpayer. The pool’s general manager James Dennison said: “We apologise to our customers for the inconvenience, but we will open as soon as we possibly can.”
