Clwyd West MS Darren Millar has hit out at Conwy County Council for letting down residents and local children by failing to get its paddling pools open this year.
As North Wales basks in glorious sunshine, Darren has criticised the local authority for not ensuring that refurbishment works on the paddling pools in Rhos on Sea, Craig-y-Don( Llandudno ), Penmaenmawr and Llanfairfechan were carried out to enable the pools to be reopened this year.
After the council announced early in the year that the paddling pools would not be filled in 2023 as they were unable to find anyone to carry out the work, Darren disputed the council’s claims that there is only one UK provider and installer of the anti-slip coating needed for the pools and urged the council “to get its act together” to ensure that the popular coastal paddling pools were “reopened as soon as possible”.
He therefore welcomed correspondence from the council in May confirming that a contractor to install the coating to the pools had been secured and that the works would be completed “as swiftly as possible”.
However, this failed to happen and local children missed out as a result, with the pools remaining closed throughout the school holidays.
Today, the council announced that the four paddling pools will now reopen next season following refurbishment.
Commenting, Darren said:
“This simply isn’t good enough. My inbox has been flooded in recent months with emails from families outraged that this free leisure activity has not been available all summer. Residents and local children feel let down, misled and lied to by the council.
“We were initially told by the council that only one contractor in the whole of the UK could do the work, then after it accepted that this was untrue, we were told then the pools would be open for children to enjoy this summer, albeit later than usual, but this didn’t come to fruition either.
“The whole management of this issue has been a shambles with no evidence of any work having taken place at all in Rhos throughout the year to date.
“This whole situation is a complete mess and quite frankly the people of Conwy deserve better than excuse after excuse. Conwy County Council really needs to get its act together and stop letting residents down.”
ENDS
