Pool open again after forced summer closure
Vandals smashed up centre during late night break-in
GREGOR FARQUHARSON
The pool at the Dollan Aqua Centre will reopen today after months of repair works.
The pool was forced to shut in July after late-night vandals targeted the leisure centre, trashing the reception area and smashing a hole in a reinforced viewing window.
That saw thousands of litres of water empty into the rest of the centre. But now, after intensive works, the centre will reopen on October 9.
Speaking of the occasion, Councillor Joe Fagan said: “This is welcome good news for the town.
“It brings an end to months of disruption for swimmers and people who use the pool recreationally.
“It was a real shame the pool was out of use over the summer holidays but hopefully families will now have use of the pool over the October break.”
The Dollan is the “most heavily programmed pool in South Lanarkshire” with thousands of swimmers estimated to have been affected by the closures.
Because the Olympic-sized pool was drained so quickly to stop the viewing window being breached any further, specialist fitters said the fast water displacement could have affected the integrity of the seal on the tiles.
That required lengthy checks to make sure the pool could be re-filled, and where problems were spotted, repairs were needed.
Specialist tiles were needed to complete the painstaking repair works before the pool could officially reopened.
Much of the centre reopened over the summer and many services, like the gym and fitness classes, continued as normal.
Reparatory work has now been completed and staff are filling the pool again – but this process will take between 7-10 days as it can only be filled at a rate of 2.5cm an hour to protect the integrity of the pool tank.
It will take 1.5 million litres of water to fill the pool completely. However, the pool will no longer have it’s famous viewing window, which has been fillled with concrete.
Councillor Fagan added: “On behalf of the community, I really do want to thank all those who worked on restoring the pool. It’s just frustrating such a mindless act of vandalism caused so much disruption to so many people.”