Leisure World pool attraction out of action during the Summer Holidays yet again

Conservatives criticised the Council’s Lib-Dem leadership for failing to keep open the immensely popular outdoor water slide at Colchester Leisure World during the 2024 summer school holidays.

This popular attraction has been closed again during the school holidays due to a “technical issue”. It temporarily re-opened for the summer, then was forced to shut until September after a “routine health and safety check.

Taxpayers now see an emerging pattern of poor stewardship of Council assets. The Middle Mill Weir bridge in lower Castle Park has been shut since the weir collapsed in December 2023 due to lack of maintenance. The ceiling of the Moot Hall at the top of the Town Hall is in danger of collapse because of the Council’s failure to keep the roof waterproof.

And now the children of Colchester are deprived of one of their favourite holiday attractions at Leisure World because of the Council’s incompetence.

Cllr Darius Laws, Conservative spokesperson on Heritage & Leisure, said: "Leisure World's iconic water flumes being out of action is bad at anytime but to be closed during the summer holidays is such a blow for children and parents from Colchester and surrounding villages.

Questions must be asked as to how we find ourselves playing catch-up with some of our maintenance obligations. The left-wing coalition running the Town Hall must do better".

Cllr William Sunnucks, Conservative spokesman on Resources, added: “The Administration's failure to get things done is now eating at the roots of the Council’s mission.  We need the determination to find the money and address problems promptly: but instead we get a bureaucratic cycle of reports and meetings while budgets are salami sliced and our assets degrade.  

It is scandalous that essential maintenance at Leisure World has fallen this far behind. And embarrassing that the problem was identified so late in the day, leaving the business without much of its summer income - and Colchester’s youngsters without healthy activities to enjoy over the holidays.”

Conservatives pledge to focus Council investment on those areas that really matter to all residents