'Clean me' written in pool scum, says councillor

A leisure centre has been criticised for "shoddy" service after so much scum had built up around its swimming pool that the words "Clean Me" were written into it.

Fenland District councillor Paul Hicks said he used the George Campbell Leisure Centre in March, Cambridgeshire, five times a week at a meeting of the local authority's overview and scrutiny panel.

He also said at least half of the lockers were not working, forcing swimmers to "take a chance" with their belongings, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Freedom Leisure, which operates the site on behalf of the council, said it needed to improve its maintenance as well as its staff communication.

Hicks, who described himself as "a spy in the camp" due to his frequent visits, said there was "scum around the outside of the pool on the top".

"I've been swimming there for months and somebody wrote 'Clean Me' in the muck," he said.

"I reported this and it was done, but I said, 'Is there a cleaning rota to do this?' and they said, 'No, we do it when we've got time.'"

Paul Doyle, Freedom's regional manager for Fenland, said there "absolutely should be a cleaning rota in place" but "if there was scum around the pool, clearly it's not been done properly."

"Whoever was answering the question on the day was perhaps trying to detract from the fact that that's not been done," he said.

Addressing the question of lockers, Doyle added: "That's obviously within our power to do, I didn't realise that was such an issue.

"As long as it's a fairly simple mechanism, then it's a fairly simple solution to replace that mechanism."

Hicks cited other problems including a broken toilet handle, a lock not working on a disabled bathroom, and a broken hand dryer that had been reported "time and time again".

Doyle said: "It does sound like the front-line staff are not passing on information to a higher level enough, so I think we need to not just improve our maintenance but also our communication."

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