Council says The Oval swimming pool will have six lanes

Jun 18 2008 by Sue McCann, Birkenhead News

THE controversy of how many lanes will be tiled into the swimming pool at The Oval could finally come to an end.

Wirral Council said this week that the pool at the sports centre in Bebington will now have the six lanes necessary for swimming competitions.

The number of lanes became an issue last month when it was revealed that not enough lanes were tiled into the refurbished pool.

The mistake at The Oval saw only five lanes tiled into the pool rather than the six required by the Amateur Swimming Association.

Then, earlier this month, the council said it would be too expensive to rip up the tiles and make up six lanes.

The authority had taken guidance about lane width from the ASA, which gave advice in good faith, unaware the pool was not new-build but a refurbishment.

Consequently, work progressed before the blunder came to light, but contractors Winstanleys said they were simply working to the plans.

A spokesman for Wirral Council said: “Following further negotiations with the contractors, we are pleased to announce the swimming pool will be re-tiled with markings for six lanes, at a much lower cost than was provided for in their estimate.

“Furthermore, the contractors have now agreed to complete the work in a much shorter timescale, which means we should be able to open the pool on Saturday, September 6.”

The pool was due to re-open in February/March, according to Wirral’s culture cabinet member, Bob Moon.

Cllr Moon said the contractors had given the council a price for fixing the number of lanes which was acceptable, but when the written quote arrived it was too expensive.

He said: “There would also have been an extra delay.

“We told them that was not acceptable and to just leave it as it is, then they came back last week with a revised quotation.

“Our project management team had been negotiating with them – there was a lot going on behind the scenes.

“We looked at it at the end of last week and decided it gives value for money. This is a project costing between £2-£3m.

“The swimming clubs were quite anxious that it would be six lanes.”

Cllr Moon said there would be an assessment of the project which began last year to refurbish the sports centre “to see if any lessons can be learned”.

He apologised for the delays, and said “dry facilities” would be open at the Oval from July 26, with the pool to open on September 6.