National Sports Centre: Swimming pools close for final flumes works

The main pool at the NSC reopened in August 2019 but will once again close

All swimming facilities at the Isle of Man's National Sports Centre will close next week as the final stage of the leisure pool refurbishment begins.

A government spokesman said the work at the Douglas facility would start on 5 October and was "expected to take several weeks".

Originally due to be completed by May 2019, the project has been held up by issues with replacement water flumes.

A completion date for the £4.4m refit has not yet been confirmed.

The closure also means the cancellation of school swimming lessons.

It had been hoped the pool and its water slides could be reopened in time for the summer holidays but the project was further delayed in April when an off-island specialist contractor cancelled a visit

Education, Sport and Culture Minister Alex Allinson apologised for the latest closure in the "complicated and much delayed project" and said contractors and staff had been working over the summer to complete the refurbishment.

The closure would allow for "scaffolding to be removed and the whole system to be commissioned", he added.