'Significant health and safety concerns' at Southport’s Splash World mean the water park will be closed for another year.
The popular attraction shut in December 2019, with Sefton Council saying it was closed for refurbishment and would reopen eight months later.
However, a report published this week on the council’s website revealed that the closure had been caused by “significant health and safety health and safety concerns stemming from failure in the pool tile surfaces”.
The report also revealed that Sefton Council has lodged a legal claim against Splash World’s original developers relating to “latent defects” at the facility after spending “several years” trying to resolve the issue informally.
Problems at the water park include tiles coming detached from the pool wall and floor, parts of the concrete flume tower staircase failing and “failures in the steel frame coating (paint) system”.
The council has now allocated £1.4m to carry out essential repairs at Splash World, which it hopes to recover from the original developer through legal action, but could face spending more in order to fully refurbish the facility.
The report said: “This facility is now 13 years old, some areas are starting to fail due to wear and tear etc and the entire facility would benefit from a more comprehensive refurbishment programme, covering fixtures, fittings and general decoration etc.
“This work does not currently form part of the essential works, but further consideration may need to be given to this matter soon if the overall appearance of the facility is to be improved.”
The closure itself has also cost the council a significant amount in lost income, even taking into account the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic that would have seen Splash World close for much of the last year anyway.
But the pandemic also prevented the council from carrying out the much-needed repairs last year, meaning the facility will not reopen until the second half of 2022 and causing the council to lose yet more income. However, the council would not say how much it expected to lose as a result of the closure.
A spokesperson for Sefton Council said: "Dunes Splash World was temporarily closed in December 2019 in order for the building to undergo essential refurbishment and regeneration works.
"This includes permanently addressing a number of latent defects that had been found following inspections by our in-house teams.
"Progress on these works were unfortunately set back due to Covid-19, while the centre was adapted as a specialist testing unit to help keep our communities safe.
"All our leisure centres have been considerably impacted by the pandemic, as has the wider leisure industry and Sefton remains committed to doing all we can to regenerate all aspects of our economy over the coming months and years.
"Our current priority is to address the essential repairs required in order for us to reopen Splash World as soon as possible for our communities and visitors to once again enjoy.
"Once these works have been carried out, we will then look to revisit our hopes for a wider regeneration of the Dunes Splash World offer, along with other exciting projects set to take place in the wider Southport area.
"We are currently in litigation with the original developers with the aim of acquiring financial reimbursement for these works and aim to resolve this issue as quickly as possible."
