Swimmers were denied the chance of taking a dip in an outdoor pool when it was closed because of staff shortages.

Both the main outdoor swimming pool and the children's paddling pool at the riverside in Wallingford were closed on Monday, June 26.

The paddling pool had to be closed because of a fault with the pumping system that maintains the water quality.

SOLL Leisure, which runs the outdoor pool and paddling pool on behalf of South Oxfordshire District Council, has undertaken to fill and empty the paddling pool daily so that it can remain open until engineers can fix it.

Peter Bradstock, head of operations at SOLL Leisure, said the main pool was closed because there were not enough staff available to supervise it safely.

Mr Bradstock said: "We had all our staff rotas organised for the week, but due to staff sickness we had to close the pool for a day.

"We only had one member of staff and the ratio of staff to people in the pool needs to be one to 20. Staff also need regular breaks from the pool and have to be moved into other areas of work because it is easy to get distracted it you are watching the pool all the time."

The pool was reopened for business as usual on Tuesday, June 26.

Mr Bradstock said this was the third year SOLL Leisure has run the pool and was the first time that they had had to close it to the public.

Town mayor Theresa Jordan said: "It was very unfortunate for visitors to Wallingford that the facilities were not available for a day. The outdoor pool has never, as far as I am aware, been closed due to staff shortages, but as I understand it SOLL rectified the situation as quickly as possible."