‘Terrible’ service at pool must improve

Llandovery town councillors believe all the above are essential if the town’s swimming pool is to stay open and not suffer the same fate as Llandeilo’s.

They are incensed by what they consider to be Carmarthenshire County Council’s “half-hearted” attitude towards the pool which draws bathers from across the Towy Valley and beyond.

Now they are writing to the authority demanding a better service.

“The pool has not been open at weekends since January and I think that’s terrible,” said Cllr Elizabeth Thomas.

“You’ve got children who want to follow a healthy lifestyle, yet they cannot pursue a pastime such as swimming.”

The county council says it has struggled to recruit experienced pool staff and the pool needs to be used more.

In a letter the authority stated: “We have overcome difficulties in lifeguarding and have a small pool of casual workers.

“However we are struggling to get experienced staff.”

But Cllr Allan Stather questioned the extent of the authority’s recruitment drive.

“They have been using that as an excuse for six months now,” he said.

“I just cannot believe they cannot find sufficient staff to run that pool given the current state of the economy.

“I’m told the usage figures are absolutely dire, but that’s not surprising considering the restricted opening hours.”

Cllr Stather suggested advertising the times the pool was open to ensure maximum usage and claimed not enough was being done to draw in extra revenue.

“Things like kiddies’ birthday parties at the pool would go down a storm,” he said. “People need to be made aware that if we do not use it, we will lose it.”

A council spokesman said: “There was extensive advertising that had little result for extra pool staff to cover shifts at the pool that was necessary to meet health and safety legislation.

“Because of the paucity of applications we ran free courses for the training of lifeguards and as a result of this have 18 additional lifeguards almost ready to serve as pool attendants.”