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West Devon THE owners and managers of Tavistock's Meadowlands swimming pool this week admitted "urgent improvements" were required to bring the facility up to scratch. A joint statement was this week issued by West Devon Borough Council, which owns the pool, and contractors Leisure Connection. The statement follows a meeting between representatives of Leisure Connection and borough council officers, sparked by recent articles in the Times, in which pool users slammed standards of cleanliness at the pool and sloppy maintenance. Terry Beckett, West Devon's leisure officer, said: "Following a very frank and positive discussion it was jointly agreed that urgent improvements need to be identified by the council and the contractor at the facility. Detailed costings are now being obtained in order that a timetable of works can jointly be agreed." Lee Sherratt, Leisure Connection's regional manager, said: "We are the beginning of a ten-year contract where both the council and Leisure Connection understand the centre needs improving for the good of the community. We have already introduced a number of new strategies and as a commitment to our members and the contract, we will deliver the promises made. We value all comments from the community and look forward to a brighter future for Meadowlands and our members." Further meetings are planned between the council and the contractor in order to keep those improvements on track and to implement further specific projects, which are being jointly identified. Lee Sheratt is being disingenuous. LC's contract started in 2004 and the complaints started almost immediately. For example, on 30.9.04 the Council emailed LC 20 complaints. Complaints and issues continued - see below and the full summary also on this site. It would be interesting to know if, given the two years of poor standards, LC are exempting the two West Devon Centres from the round of cuts started in the summer of 2006. PB 7.9.06 Borough and pool firm to discuss complaints Borough and pool firm to discuss complaints From Tavistock Today http://www.tavistock-today.co.uk/today/options/news/newsdetail.cfm?id=29677 Reproduced in full.IMPROVEMENTS to Tavistock's Meadowlands swimming pool could be in the pipeline. A meeting is to be held between the leisure officer of West Devon Borough Council and Leisure Connection, which runs Meadowlands, to set a timescale for action. It follows last week's Times report in which regular users of the pool hit out at what they described as the "appalling?" state of the facility. They claimed there were dirty changing rooms, damaged lockers, showers that did not work properly and erratic water temperatures. Concerns passed to borough councillors by the Meadowlands Pool Users' Group also included hygiene and cleanliness, together with comments about cubicles, showers, draughts and the limited range of refreshments at the café. And writers of letters to the Times this week say they have complained about various issues at the pool and been promised words, but had received no action. Terry Beckett, the borough council's leisure manager, said he had spoken to Leisure Connection about the complaints made in the article. A meeting scheduled for today (Thursday) would include discussions on "a number of issues". Mr Beckett said: "I will particularly be raising some of the long-standing issues with them and hopefully we will establish a timescale for action." A spokesperson for Leisure Connection said they did not wish to comment further at this stage. This
makes a change from no one being available for comment, LC's usual dodge when
faced with bad news, but is hardly satisfactory response to issues similar to
those identified over a year ago and to which action was promised some time ago.
See the "dirt" revealed by FOI in 2005 below. PB Dr Ann Stirland, who recently returned to Meadowlands after a break of several months, said she was "disgusted by the lack of attention to the pool". "The changing rooms are dirty and smell, fewer and fewer of the lockers are in an operable condition, the whole area of the pool is always dirty and there is generally an unhealthy smell about the whole facility," she said. Dr Stirland said residents of Tavistock were paying high council tax and expected decent standards at their local swimming pool: "Tavistock is now a holiday destination for an increasing number of people and has a reputation to nurture as the best small market town ? the present condition of our pool can only detract from this." Regular swimmer Joan Torvell said when she attended the pool last week there were somewhere in the region of 40 dead flies and bits of used plaster on one of the pool islands. Lumps of hair were also a frequent sight around the pool. "Meadowlands is such a wonderful amenity for Tavistock. it is very well used particularly in the school holidays but health and safety is especially important when lots of children are using the pool. At the moment it looks tacky and unclean." Kay Nicholson is a member of the Meadowlands Pool Users Group which liaises with owners of the facility West Devon Borough Council to pass on views and concerns. Hygiene and cleanliness concerns have been expressed to councillors together with comments about the cubicles, showers, draughts and the cafe which has a very limited range of refreshments. The same problems were continuing without any feeling of action being taken, said Miss Nicholson. "If action is taken there has been an immediate burst of activity and then it just peters out again," she said. "We appreciate that some of the problems can only be solved over a period of time and some with quite a financial commitment but there are other things which can be done now." Pool users fear that all the money is being ploughed into the new leisure facility at Okehampton and Meadowlands is being left to degrade until it is unusable and will have to be closed. However Mr Beckett said there are "definitely no plans" to run the facility down. He said Leisure Connection is only in year two of a ten year contract, "The leisure pool has been recognised by the council as a significant aspect of leisure provision for residents and visitors alike." He said it was the intention of the council and its contractors to improve all aspects of Meadowlands. These included repairs, improvements and replacements to a defective air handling unit, shower pumps, lockers and cubicles and options for dealing with the acoustic ceiling tiles. He said the pool temperature readings were maintained between 29 and 31 degrees centigrade (the norm for indoor pools) but the air temperature was sometimes subject to fluctuation. A letter in Tavistock Today in May 2006 asked if Meadowlands had a policy of ageism? Why did over-50 swimmers have to ring the Thanks to West Devon Council for a helpful summary of issues with LC, following my request under the Freedom of Information Act. The full summary is available on LCW as three-page Word document. PB One
year on how delighted is Nick and do the users think they have a first class
service from LC? Judge for yourself. One of the centres, Parklands was
completely new and the other, Meadowlands, opened in 1990. Dirty or other drain issues x6 Overdue or no evidence of backwashing (pool water treatment to filter out dirt) x6 Total dissolved solids in pool too high x3 (which could be linked to lack of backwashing) Overdue pool tests, pool tests not carried out, high bacteria count in domestic hot water supply Algae growth x3 Worries re understaffing x2 Scum lines around cascades, Dirty kitchen, unacceptable state of fat fryers, oil on floor, messy café, unacceptable café opening times Poolside dirty, dirty troughs and grills in changing area, dirty floors, Grounds maintenance issues x2 Lockers need overhaul Calcium hardness dropped - training issues for taking reading, differential between contractor readings and independent readings re water sampling Need for litter picking, , Falling standards; temp of pool reducing; smelly mats. faeces in pool; Unclean pool, objects in pool Broken chair for disabled customers, Escalation of faeces in pool complaint, unacceptable standards Councillor complaints about dirty changing
rooms
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