FITNESS fans and gym instructors are falling unwell after pigeons’ nests stopped the air conditioning unit working at a sports centre.

Customers say the unit, at Southend Leisure and Tennis Centre, has been broken for almost a month - making training sessions and workouts a nightmare.

Centre bosses and and Southend Council say they are doing all they can.

Barry Gardener, 50, of Victoria Avenue, Southend said he’s been a gym members for years.

He said: “This is not good enough at all.

“Members are angry and worried about health and safety and diseases.”

One customer, 49, of Maplin Way, Southend who asked to remain anonymous said the issues has become increasingly difficult.

She said: “It’s been going on for weeks now and nobody seems to be taking responsibility for the problem.

“When you walk in the doors, the heat hits you.

“People are passing out as this in the high intensity classes. We’ve been told about the problem by staff at the centre but they say they are not qualified to deal with it.

“We are paying enough money and it needs to be sorted very soon.”

Staff confirmed the issue to the Echo but said they could not comment further.

A Fusion Leisure spokesman said: “Works to professionally clean the roof areas including the external air conditioning units is scheduled for next week with a specialist pest control contractor.

“Following this, we have engineers waiting to inspect the units and we will then programme further works to repair the air conditioning system to bring it back on line.

“Customers should be assured that we are working as quickly as possible to resolve this issue and we thank them for their patience up to now.”

Derek Jarvis, councillor for culture, sport and tourism, said: “Fusion are the contracted company running the leisure centre for us and we meet with them regularly raising matters of the contract’s terms to ensure the provision for residents is met.”

We need to be ‘coo-led’ down!