Pingles leisure centre 'immediately closed' as council issues statement

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Initially just the leisure pool and gym were shut but now the whole Pingles Leisure Centre is closed



Mystery surrounds the 'immediate closure' of Nuneaton's biggest leisure centre. Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council has confirmed it has taken the decision to shut the Pingles Leisure Centre for 'urgent maintenance'.

Earlier this afternoon (January 9) both the council and Everyone Active, which runs the centre on behalf of the authority, posted that the leisure pool and gym were closed due to 'urgent essential maintenance'. At that point the main pool and the centre itself remained open.

But now the whole centre has been closed. This means that all sessions, including children's swimming lessons, have been cancelled.

It is unclear when the centre will re-open. In a statement, the council said: "We have made the decision to close the Pingles Leisure Centre with immediate effect due to urgent essential maintenance.

"We hope to re-open as soon as possible and will endeavour to inform centre users and members of the public when we have further details. We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused."

The Town Hall went on to add that it would not be issuing any further information.

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Council breaks silence on 'urgent' Nuneaton Pingles Leisure Centre closure



Council bosses have explained why Nuneaton's biggest leisure centre was closed suddenly. It has been more than 24 hours since the town's biggest leisure centre shut its doors suddenly yesterday (January 9).

Now the council has broken its silence on the immediate closure and when the centre will re-open. The 'urgent essential maintenance' work was linked to the reported 'corrosion' at the building.

It was just before Christmas when corrosion was discovered on some of the steel columns holding the leisure centre up. Funding was agreed for the works to take place.

This afternoon (January 10) the council has said that temporary closure followed maintenance works to the steel columns in the leisure water area. A structural engineer had to be called in. Now, with the works still due to take place, the centre has been given the all-clear to open.

But this will be in phases. It also means that the smaller 'leisure pool' will have to remain closed. Parts of the gym will re-open, but not until Monday (January 13) and the main pool will re-open tomorrow (January 11).

The council statement reads: "A period of closure was put in place to afford time for technical assessment to take place. Following a structural engineer inspection late today, NBBC is pleased to confirm that the centre is able to re-open.

"Further repair works do need to take place, and we are now arranging for that to happen as quickly as possible. In the interim, we do unfortunately need to keep the smaller leisure pool area closed and restrict access to part of the gym space, until this work has been completed.

"Working with Everyone Active, the management and use of the main pool will continue as usual from Saturday, January 11, and the gym and studio will re-open on Monday, January 13 with an amended programme, which will be available to book online."

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The true extent of 'serious corrosion' at Nuneaton's biggest leisure centre revealed



The true extent of 'corrosion' at Nuneaton's biggest leisure centre has been revealed. CoventryLive revealed that issues had been discovered on the steels columns that hold the Pingles Leisure Centre centre up before Christmas.

But the situation came to a head last month when the centre was closed for more than 36 hours at the last month due to 'corrosion' at the building. Much of it has since re-opened but there remain changes to the gym and the small 'leisure pool' remains shut.

Councillor Tim Jenkins, cabinet member for leisure was asked to provide an update on the structural issues at the annual budget setting meeting by Cllr Mike Wright. Cllr Jenkins revealed the extent of the 'serious' problems.

"A lack of maintenance left serious structural issues with the columns inside the Pingles" he said. "Currently we are waiting on an ultrasound survey on the columns.

"It wasn't quite as bad as we first thought, which is a relief. We were planning on putting columns on the outside of the Pingles to replace the ones on the inside. So, what we are looking at it is a temporary fix so that the gym upstairs can fully open again. There are two columns that are in a particular poor state.

"Once the temporary support has gone in, the gym can re-open and then there will be more work carried out once they (the columns) have been properly assessed. Then we will know better where we stand."