Magherafelt's Greenvale Leisure Centre staffing issues blamed for 50-metre pool part-closure

Councillor Wilbert Buchanan (DUP, Cookstown DEA) raised the issue at a recent council Development Committee meeting on behalf of party colleague Paul McLean (Magherafelt DEA), who was absent.

Cllr Buchanan explained that his party colleague had received complaints from Greenvale Leisure Centre pool users, about half of the pool being regularly sealed off.

Assistant director for Health, Leisure & Wellbeing, Kieran Gordon explained: “Yes, Cllr Buchanan, we are aware and I would indeed share those frustrations that members of the public have been having.

“Regrettably, with it being a 50-metre pool, you may appreciate it needs a certain amount of staff to supervise it, so when it’s a 25-metre pool it needs less staff to supervise it.

“We have been experiencing unprecedented staff shortages.

“Just right now we have a recruitment campaign out where we have 24 full and part-time vacancies that are currently out for public advertisement. They’re due to close imminently.

“Whilst we’re hopeful, we also recognise that that may not provide the answer to all of our [problems].

“We are working within a challenging budget situation as well, and we are trying to have a balanced programme where we have the 50-metre pool open on certain days, certain evenings and certain mornings of the week.

“So while the recruitment will obviously [ease] pressure for us and enable us to open it even more, we know that based on the current climate we can’t open it seven days a week either for 50 metres.

“We are creatively and innovatively looking at the programming, looking at the different demands, looking at the user statistics coming in.

“We’re hopeful that we have a programme there that whilst it may not be open every morning and every evening, we’re hoping to give a balance throughout the week for clubs, for users and individual swimmers as well.”