A SWIMMING pool that has been closed since January for £200,000 worth of repairs will be shut until next month because of delays in the work.

The pool at the Waterside Farm Sports Centre, on Canvey, was damaged when winds whipped out roof panels, exposing asbestos dust.

Months passed and the pool remained closed while Castle Point Council negotiated with insurers. The long-awaited work, which included relining the pool and renovating changing rooms, finally started at the beginning of last month and was set to last six weeks.

But the council has announced it will not be open until next month at the earliest.

Wendy Goodwin, chairman of the community committee, said: "So far, the changing rooms have been refurbished, the slide has been removed and the ceiling has been resprayed.

"The viewing area is being revamped at the moment and the asbestos removal work is under way.

"The pool is being relined on July 16. It will then take around two weeks to refill and reheat the pool and test all the systems, so we are anticipating a relaunch in early August.

"We again apologise for the inconvenience caused. We are working to get the pool open as quickly as possible and we are ensuring that it will be a greatly enhanced facility."

The council is paying £42,400 towards the revamp.

However, it also has some other problems to contend with.

Users of the sports centre have endured faults with a sauna and steam room, which left them unavailable to use on several occasions.

Mrs Goodwin said: "The steam room was out of action for around four weeks after a boiler failure. A new boiler was ordered straight away and fitted as soon as possible. Unfortunately there were some teething problems with the new boiler."