Council's crisis talks over pool fiasco

6:39am Tuesday 13th May 2008

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Emergency talks were held yesterday over "absurd" and "unacceptable" staff shortages at Oxford's open-air swimming pool.

Bob Price, the leader-elect of the city council, met chief executive Peter Sloman after experiencing the problems first-hand, queuing for nearly an hour to swim at Hinksey Pool.

His experience mirrored that of hundreds of bathers forced to endure long waits because of a lack of lifeguards available to work at Oxford's six swimming pools for the past four days.

Yesterday, the Oxford Mail revealed that queues of more than 100 bathers built up at the pool on Sunday - the hottest day of the year so far - because management restricted numbers on safety grounds, due to a lack of staff.

Two other pools - at Peers Sports Centre and Blackbird Leys Swimming Pool - were closed so that staff could work at Hinksey.

But the council admitted there were still only four lifeguards out of a possible eight on duty at the pool until 2pm on Saturday and Sunday.

Council spokesman Chris Lee said the authority was trying to recruit 16 new lifeguards, including four who had been appointed, but were unable to start work until compulsory criminal record checks were completed.

He added that the council was trying to reduce its reliance on casual staff, reviewing the safe operating capacities for pools and reviewing staff terms and conditions to increase flexibility.

However, he said the council could not guarantee the problem would not be repeated.

Mr Price said: "It's absurd and unacceptable. I was there myself on Friday with my daughter and we had to wait for 50 minutes.

"People were very angry then, and it has carried on all weekend and today. It's unacceptable for managerial inefficiency to have caused so many problems for customers."

Mr Price, who will officially take over as council leader on Thursday, after the Labour Party became the biggest group on the council earlier this month, said he had been in contact with Mr Sloman every day since Saturday, in a bid to solve the staff shortage.

David Rundle, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, said longstanding lifeguard shortages had been partly due to a recruitment freeze that was ordered because council officers did not know how many people were working for leisure services.

Tanya Tsikas, 45, from Iffley, who took her daughters Olya and Sofia to the pool on Sunday, said: "We were looking forward to a nice, long swim but it was cut short. The council knew it would be nice weather at the weekend. They should be able to get enough staff so it runs properly."