Bangor: Floor of Aurora pool to be replaced due to defect

The movable floor of a £38m swimming pool in Bangor, County Down, is to be replaced because it developed a defect less than a decade after it opened.

The 50m pool at the Aurora Aquatics and Leisure Complex is the only swimming facility in Northern Ireland that was built to Olympic standards.

It opened in 2013 but last year the fault put half of the pool out of use.

Ards and North Down Council tried to repair it but has now said it has decided to replace the floor instead.

"This is a very complex issue in terms of delivery," a council spokesman told BBC News NI.

He explained that a process "has been under way for several months to appoint a team that will design the new [floor] and appoint the required contractors to install it".

"In the meantime, a cost-effective interim solution that uses the existing floor system was approved by the council and put in place to minimise the impact on users," he added.

The issue has affected the training of Northern Ireland's elite swimmers.

Last summer, coaches complained that the venue could not be used practice 50m lengths as only 25m of the pool was accessible.

At the time, Nelson Lindsay, coach of Paralympic champion Bethany Firth, said the defective floor was affecting swimming competitions.

"The system put in place in Aurora, the raised floors are so flimsy that they bow in the middle and officials are standing with water halfway up their chins."

In their response in June 2022, the council said it was "aware of the defect with the moveable swimming-pool floor".

It said it had appointed specialist contractors and was waiting for a repair date to be confirmed.

But almost a year on, it has been decided that the floor should be ripped out instead.

The Aurora leisure centre is owned by Ards and North Down Council but for the past 10 years it has outsourced the management of the centre to private operators.

Serco Leisure, in partnership with the Northern Community Leisure Trust, recently won a five-year contract extension to manage the venue until 2028.

The 50m pool was described as "flagship project" of the Sport Northern Ireland Elite Facilities Programme, which was aimed at creating Olympic-standard facilities as a legacy of the 2012 Games.

Sport Northern Ireland and Stormont Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure contributed more than £14m in grants towards the £37.84m Aurora construction.

Ards and North Down Council's predecessor, Down Borough Council, was selected as the preferred bidder for the Olympic-standard pool facility at the time.

The pool had been due to open in 2010, but government funding and problems transporting the roof beams meant it was delayed and did not open until March 2013.

As a result, the Bangor project came second in the race to built biggest pool in Northern Ireland as the first 50m pool opened in Magherafelt in September 2012.