THE swimming pool at Kingfisher Leisure Centre in Sudbury will reopen this weekend after repair work was completed.

It opens for casual swimming from Saturday, 15 February, with a full programme and lessons resuming from Monday, 17 February. This means swimming will be back for half-term week.

While the rest of the leisure centre has remained open, the pool has been closed since 23 August.

This was so work could be carried out to address damage to the glass roof, and for additional structural work to the pool.

These have now been completed as planned, along with other repairs to the pool area - including the replacement of some tiling.

Cllr Laura Smith, Babergh's cabinet member for Thriving Communities, said: "We're so pleased that the pool can finally reopen, and it will be fantastic to see swimmers back in the water.

"We are really sorry for the disruption over the last six months, but it was essential we carried out this work – we always have to put people's health and safety first.

"Our teams have worked hard to get the pool open again as soon as we could, and I'm delighted this will happen for half term."

The leisure centre is owned by Babergh District Council and operated by not-for-profit social enterprise Abbeycroft.

Warren Smyth, chief executive of Abbeycroft, added: "We can't wait to welcome back swimmers and put the disruption firmly behind us.

"While members have been able to use any of our five other swimming pools in the interim, we know how popular the Kingfisher pool is so it will be great to be back up and running.

"I would like to apologise to all our customers for the inconvenience this has caused since August and thank everyone for their patience and understanding."

There will continue to be some maintenance undertaken to the exterior of the leisure centre in the coming weeks, but this will not impact on its opening schedule.

The wave machine will no longer be in operation when the pool reopens.

Abbeycroft customers will be contacted directly for updates about their membership and more information about the programme and bookings can be found on their app or at https://www.abbeycroft.org.uk/kingfisher-pool-reopening/