Diving tower unveiled at Southend's new ‘Olympic’ pool (From Echo)

Diving tower unveiled at Southend's new ‘Olympic’ pool

2:30pm Monday 1st February 2010 in

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A NEW world-class diving tower hopes to put Southend on the international sporting map.

The tower has been officially unveiled at Southend’s new state-of-the-art Garon Park pool, days after the British Olympic diving team expressed an interest in using it for training in the run up to the London games.

The tower is Britain’s first pre-cast dive tower and will take pride of place at the £13.5million pool which is being built at Southend Leisure and Tennis Centre.

The structure of the pool has been built and it is hoped the walls and roof will be finished soon.

Most of the concrete floor has been laid down and the diving area and the two pools can be clearly seen.

Construction workers from ISG Jackson have been working in the bitter cold to get the building complete by September.

There will be 3m, 5m, 7.5m and 10m diving platforms which will all be 3m wide to allow for synchronised diving.

Alongside the dive centre, which will have a retractable floor to open up the pool, there will be a 25-metre, eight-lane swimming pool.

There will also be a leisure pool with water slide, water sprays, a massage seat, small fountain, and a beach-style gradient so swimmers can walk from the poolside into the water.

Outside the pool will be a dry diving training area with a harness and trampolines for divers to practice their manoeuvres before they take to the boards.

Construction of the building, which will have 374 tiered seats including 22 wheelchair spaces for visitors started in May.

British Swimming has already expressed an interest in using the pool to hold their annual diving assessment camps in December this year and November 2011.

There is also a chance the British diving team might use Garon Park for pre-games training camps in the run up to the Olympics.

The agreement between British Swimming and Southend Council has yet to be finalised.

Southend’s councillor for culture, Derek Jarvis, said: “This is a really exciting moment in the development of our new pool, especially with the potential prospect of the British Diving team training here.

“We have received a letter of intent from them, so it’s not a contract, but it’s very positive.

“They said they hope it will raise the reputation of Garon Park and Southend in the eyes of the diving community.

“We are in a strong position to attract divers here because there is no other diving facility like this in the area and we are so near to the Olympic base in Stratford, East London.”

Southend mayor Brian Smith, who unveiled the tower, added: “I think it’s phenomenal.

“It’s a wonderful project and to achieve all this in just this time is really excellent.”