THE long-running saga of how many lanes will be tiled into a Wirral swimming pool could finally come to an end.

Last night, Wirral Council announced that the pool at the flagship sports centre, The Oval, in Bebington, would have the six lanes necessary for swimming competitions.

The number of lanes became an issue last month when it was revealed not enough lanes were tiled into the refurbished pool.

The extraordinary mistake at The Oval saw only five lanes tiled into the pool, rather than the six required by the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA).

Then, earlier this month, the council said it would be too expen-sive to rip up the tiles and make up six lanes.

The council had taken guidance about lane width from the ASA, who gave advice in good faith, un-aware the pool was not new-build, but a refurbishment. Consequent-ly, work progressed before the blunder came to light, but cont- ractors Winstanleys said they were simply working to the plans.

A spokesman for Wirral Council said: “Following further negotia-tions with the contractors, we are pleased to announce the swim-ming pool will be re-tiled with markings for six lanes, at a much lower cost than was provided for in their estimate. Furthermore, the contractors have now agreed to complete the work in a much shorter timescale, which means we should be able to open the pool on Saturday, September 6.”

The pool was due to re-open in Feburary/March, according to Wirral’s culture cabinet member, Bob Moon.

Cllr Moon said the contractors had given the council a price for fixing the number of lanes which was acceptable, but when the written quote arrived it was too expensive.

He added: “There would also have been an extra delay.

“We told them that was not acceptable and to just leave it as it is, then they came back last week with a revised quotation.

“Our project management team had been negotiating with them – there was a lot going on behind the scenes.

“We looked at it at the end of last week, and decided it gives value for money. This is a project costing between £2m to £3m.

“The swimming clubs were quite anxious that it would be six lanes.”

He said there would be an assessment of the project which began last year to refurbish the sports centre “so see if any lessons can be learned”.

Cllr Moon apologised for the delays, and said “dry facilities” would be open at the Oval from July 26, with the pool to open on September 6.

liammurphy