Bungling council spends £5m on Olympic swimming pool...to be told it was TWO INCHES too short for competition

Published 01st Mar 2011

A new £5m' Olympic' swimming pool has come under fire after it was found to be two inches too short for the competition's standards.

Politicians have admitted the 50m pool at the Mountbatten centre in Portsmouth, Hants, was described as 'Olympic-sized' and 'Olympic-standard', but is unsuitable for the games.

Tories on the city council have accused the leading Lib Dem group of mistakes after the eight lane pool was opened.

The council has admitted touch-sensitive 'time boards' necessary for the Olympic Games would take up around two inches - meaning the pool would then be too short.

However the Lib Dems deny it is a blunder and say the pool can be used for training, with swimmers timed using stopwatches, and for amateur events.

Tory councillor Jim Fleming said: 'It's a mistake. It's not long enough to meet Olympic standards.

'It was a council mix-up, a failure to deliver, and the cabinet should admit it and apologise to the city.' Tory Councillor Donna Jones said: 'It may be there was no plan for the pool to be used in competition, but the centre was to be used as a training centre for Olympic athletes, including swimmers.

'The way it was sold to us was we would be hosting an Olympic team of swimmers for training for the 2012 games.

'But now we're being told the pool is two inches too short for that and as a result the city will lose millions of pounds of revenue along with massive cash grant injections.

'The amateurs will be happy with the pool but top level athletes cannot rely on timing themselves with someone standing by the side of the pool pressing a stopwatch."

The pool, which was fitted as part of a £20m investment by the council, has a certificate of approval from the Amateur Swimming Association and one from an international swimming body.

They state the pool is 'within the acceptable tolerances' of the organisation.

Council leader for sport, Councillor Lee Hunt, said, 'It was never to be used for the Olympics and it can be used for training and competitions.

'But it was designed to have eight lanes, without two empty outside lanes necessary for international racing.

'It was developed in partnership with national sporting bodies and we were aware of this when voting for it.'

Source: ' Daily Mail '

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