Children allowed to use pool again

Press, 15 February 1985, Page 7

Children allowed to use pool again

Pupils at Woolston Primary School were using their swimming pool again yesterday after a Christchurch City Council health inspector closed the pool on Monday afternoon. The council’s supervising health inspector, Mr Neil Thompson, said the pool water had been green, cloudy, and contained algae when it was checked in a routine check on Monday.

The health inspector who had visited the pool had closed it until work could be done to improve the water. A check on Tuesday showed a significant improvement and the pool was checked again on Wednesday and cleared, he said.

The school’s headmaster, Mr Clive Cotton, said the pupils had been using the pool from lunchtime yesterday. The problem had been with the chemical balance of the water, he said. That had been rectified.

Vandalism at the pool had also caused problems, he said.

Mr Thompson said the pool would be checked again in a few days. The standard of pools generally was fairly good, he said. School pools were regularly checked, two or three times, during the summer. Some had problems with the standard of water because of inadequate equipment and knowledge. The council’s health divi-

sion had run a seminar for pool operators in November, attended by 45 people. The seminar was held annually to improve the skills of pool operators. Public pools such as Queen Elizabeth II and Centennial were checked regularly throughout the year with samples taken for bacteriological and chemical analysis twice a month. There was always a chance that people might catch some infection in a public facility. Hygienic pool care lessened that chance, Mr Thompson said. He doubted that anyone would have caught an infection from the Woolston School pool, although it was possible.