The main swimming pool at the National Sports Centre in Douglas will reopen to the public this weekend.
Final testing of the pool will take place this Thursday and Friday. Subject to any unforeseen difficulties, the pool will then reopen to the public at 9.00am on Saturday 17 August.
Due to the leisure pool and flumes remaining closed at this stage, a reduced capacity to manage the number of people in the pool at one time will be in place.
Public swim sessions will take place at the following times on Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 August:
Quiet sessions (no toys or floats):
9am - 10.15am
4.30pm - 7pm
Fun sessions (with toys and floats):
10.30am - 12 noon
12.30pm - 2pm
2.30pm - 4pm
Lane swimming will be available throughout the day.
Following the opening weekend, a weekly timetable outlining all public opening times thereafter can be viewed here: Pool Timetable.pdf.
Public swim sessions cannot be pre booked and with an expected high demand during the summer holidays, swim sessions will be managed on a first served basis.
Graham Cregeen MHK, Minister for Education, Sport and Culture, said:
‘I’m delighted that we’re able to reopen the main pool to the public this weekend. The delay has been disappointing, however this has been a significant project and has enabled us to make some essential refurbishments to the pool and also allowed us to upgrade the facility for the public. I hope this will encourage more people to come along to the pool and get involved in some of the public swim sessions available at the NSC.
‘The Department will continue to work with contractors to ensure the leisure pool and flumes are also reopened to the public as soon as possible.’
Children who have attended this summer’s school holiday sports development scheme, regular early bird swimmers, and the Isle of Man swimming squad, have all been invited to take part in the test swims later this week.
