It’s sad Retreat won’t be able to utilise pool

YOUR report (“Closed pool leaves kids wandering hot streets”, November 17) regarding the municipal pool in Retreat refers.

I am struggling to understand how the city council allowed a contractor to continue work for a period of 15 months, knowing, as claimed in the report, that there were concerns about the quality of the work rendered.

Surely, someone in the city council needs to be held accountable.

This raises the concern of structural safety. The ward councillor, Kevin Southgate, says the new contractor will “make good the facilities”.

Will this new contractor be monitored by the same people who monitored the inadequacies of the previous contractor for 15 months?

The councillor states the pool will be temporarily opened from December 5.

I trust that he is guaranteeing that the pool will be structurally safe.

It is really disappointing and sad that as a community we will not have full utilisation of the pool.

I sympathise with Retreat Aquatics Club: a club steeped in history, surviving the dark days of apartheid, while producing quality coaches and swimmers.

Swimming has delivered more Olympic and world champions than any other sporting code in South Africa.

How many champions have now fallen by the wayside due to this travesty?

As a resident living directly opposite the pool and as an educator teaching at a local school, I will be monitoring closely the progress at this facility.