FOLLOWING last week’s long-awaited reopening of Askeaton Pool and Leisure Centre, after an extensive refurbishment and flood-remediation programme, councillors now believe more work is needed to finish the job.
Around €2.8million was invested to bring the centre back into full operation, with works including raising of the floor level of the water-treatment plant room, replacement of all mechanical and electrical systems, and the installation of sustainable energy-efficient systems.
However, at the December meeting of the Adare-Rathkeale Municipal District, Fine Gael councillor Adam Teskey hit out at Council management for not finishing the job.
He took the view that more upgrade works were needed to bring the facility up to standard.
“While this is a good new story, and while money’s been spent there, and it’s great to see the facility opened, a cosmetic upgrade is badly needed,” Cllr Teskey insisted.
“We spent the best part of €3million on that facility and it’s the small things that create the unique selling point in order to attract new membership. I think we’re letting it, and ourselves, down by not completing those works.”
Cllr Teskey said he was “amazed to see that we have taken our eye off the ball in relation to the small things which matter so much in terms of general cleanliness, hygiene, and the overflow of plastic serrated mats that are around the perimeter of the pool. They need to be upgraded.”
“We saw the ladies changing rooms and they’re certainly not up to standard. I believe it was only because representations were made by me that they decided to give the lockers a paint, believe it or not.”
Cllr Teskey called for further funding to be found, whether through the mayoral fund or next year’s general municipal allocation, to give Askeaton Pool “a last finish”.
“It’s a crying shame that we spent €3million there and we haven’t actually got to the finer things that are needed to finish it,” he added.
Cllr Teskey also felt wounded as councillors, he believed, didn’t get enough kudos for their part in delivering the upgrade after a lengthy three-year closure at the pool.
“There was a lot of people in the room for the opening, and the flack and the slack that we had to listen to and put up with it when that pool closed. I thought it was quite ironic that at the public meetings we attended when it was closed, we had hundreds of people in a room one night lambasting us. When we got it opened then, there was only a handful of people there and they didn’t even congratulate us or give us a mere ‘well done lads’,” he lamented.
Cllr Stephen Keary (FG) thought it more ironic that the facility, built 20 years ago for €3million, needed upgrade works costing another €3m at all.
“If there had been better planning foresight put into the location of the pumphouse, we wouldn’t have had to spend another €2.8million on the upgrade. It is absolutely scandalous to have to had spent that money to raise the level. The Council as an authority need to be more cognisant of this kind of development in those vulnerable areas in the future,” Cllr Keary concluded.
– Local Democracy Reporting Scheme