Pavilions pool repairs to cost council £1m

Places for People Leisure, which operates the centre on behalf of Horsham District Council, announced last week it was closing the pools for ‘vital renovation works’ from the start of December until the start of February 2015.

The repair costs will total around £1m and will be fully funded by HDC, 12 years after the facility opened, with an original build cost of £14.5m.

A spokesperson for HDC said: “The works are necessary to rectify repairs that were outstanding before December 2012.

“These include retiling, works to the foundation, re-roofing of the flat roofs and repairs to the glazing.

“This work hasn’t taken place before because of the significant disruption it would cause to users.

“It was considered appropriate to undertake as many repairs to the building in one period, to reduce inconvenience to customers and achieve value for money.

“However, we have reached a time when such defects cannot be left any longer without leading to more costly repairs in the future.”

The spokesperson said it was optimistic work will be completed within the two months, and will liaise closely with Places for People to minimise disruption.

The works will include repairs to the pools drainage channels and steel structures in the pool hall, as well as behind the scenes plant room work that cannot be carried out whilst the pool is in use.

The fitness suite and dry side workout classes will be unaffected by the works and will follow their normal timetables.

Burgess Hill-based RB Construction have been appointed to undertake the work.

The renovation was raised at a HDC’s Business Improvement Working Group meeting on Tuesday as part of a discussion on its review of its property and asset management.

It was highlighted as one of several examples where substantial repair work was needed to property owned by the council after it was built.

Brian O’Connell (Con, Henfield), chairman of the working group, felt the review had to establish a comprehensive asset register, how the property department was run, and why there had been large budget underspends in the last few years.

Mr O’Connell said: “I want to be assured someone is in control and someone knows what is going on.”

Frances Haigh (LDem, Horsham Park) felt it was important the review established a good way of working for the future.

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Horsham’s Pavilions pools are to close.