Documents published by Sefton Council have revealed a £1.4m repair bill to fix “significant health and safety concerns” at Splashword amid warnings that “further funding may be required to complete the entire scheme.”
A report to Sefton Council’s Cabinet has now been published detailing the full scale of the works.
The report recommends the award of a tender and appointment of a contractor to enable essential repairs.
The document details that the facility was closed in 2019 from failures on the pool tile surfaces coming away from backing.
At the time, it was publicised that the full refurbishment would take 8 months, and that the closure was for scheduled remedial works. This is the first time any health and safety issues of this nature at Splashworld have been divulged.
The report now says the facility is not likely to reopen until “the latter part of 2022.”
In 2019 Sefton Council had said of the temporary closure: “This is incredibly welcome news which will see Splashworld benefit from updated facilities, and potentially the addition of some new facilities for people to enjoy for many years to come.”
Approval was sought for £1.2m of repair works earlier this year while investigations were still ongoing as to the full extent of damage at the pool.
The lowest bid for the works was £1,198,574 before additional professional fees and charges of £190,299 giving a final bill of £1,388,874. Only two bids were received from 6 invited companies.
Detailing the works required, the report reads: “A scheme of remedial works is required to deal with failure in the steel frame coating (paint) system, along with concrete repairs to failed areas of the flume tower staircase. The tiling of the pool wall and floor surfaces also needs replacement due it [sic] becoming seperated from its backing, along with replacement of the associated background (adhesive) and sub base materials.”
The report recommends that Concrete Repairs Ltd are awarded the contract for carrying out the works.
A spokesperson for Sefton Council said: “Dunes Splashworld was temporarily closed in December 2019 in order for the building to undergo essential refurbishment and regeneration works.
“This includes permanently addressing a number of latent defects that had been found following inspections by our in-house teams.
“Progress on these works were unfortunately set back due to COVID-19, while the centre was adapted as a specialist testing unit to help keep our communities safe
“All our leisure centres have been considerably impacted by the pandemic, as has the wider leisure industry and Sefton remains committed to doing all we can to regenerate all aspects of our economy over the coming months and years.
“Our current priority is to address the essential repairs required in order for us to reopen Splashworld as soon as possible for our communities and visitors to once again enjoy.
“Once these works have been carried out, we will then look to revisit our hopes for a wider regeneration of the Dunes Splashworld offer, along with other exciting projects set to take place in the wider Southport area.
“We are currently in litigation with the original developers with the aim of acquiring financial reimbursement for these works and aim to resolve this issue as quickly as possible.”
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