“We apologise to all our customers for the inconvenience, but hope you understand that we take your health and safety seriously, and as Jersey’s premiere aquatic centre, we want to maintain the highest of standards at our facilities,” the email message read.
Pictured: The email message to customers.
Chris Daniels, Director of D2 Real Estate, which is the leisure centre’s managing agents, explained that during investigative works as part of scheduled maintenance “rot was found in some of the timber beams”.
He told Express that the fact the beams had been made from wood was “not ideal in a marine environment”, meaning that they were susceptible to damage.
However, he said that scaffolding was up and work was well underway to fix this, which had led to the closure of the outdoor roof area. Mr Daniels said he could not be sure when it would open again, but said that the group were working to “try and accelerate” the works.
Pictured: Scaffolding has been put up around the Aquasplash building.
He said he hoped they would be complete “in a matter of months”, but noted that the island’s construction industry was currently “very busy” and that “finding skilled carpenters is not easy”.
Despite falling under the label of “health and safety”, Mr Daniels reassured islanders that there was no need for panic – “there is no reason to believe that the building will imminently collapse,” he said.
The Aquasplash site was acquired last autumn by Jersey Development Company for over £15million. The deal involved taking on all of the Waterfront development, which was built in 2003, including Cineworld, Fitness First and various restaurants.