Council officers "underestimated the technical knowledge, support and oversight" needed in the near £1 million refurbishment of the public paddling pools in Warwick and Leamington Spa.

The two pools were due to reopen to the public last May but were hit with delays until the Victoria Park site reopened for just a few days in July.

Warwick District Council (WDC) was forced to shut it due to "significant issues" and the reopening of the St Nicholas Park pool was also cancelled.

A report due to be discussed by the council's overview and scrutiny committee next week reveals "concerns regarding the pool surfacing and the water play features failures" were quickly discovered, with the former described as "unsuitable".

Having signed off on the projects in September 2024, WDC commissioned external contractors to complete the works. They employed subcontractors "for specialist areas of the build".

In February 2025 final budgets of £470,200 for Victoria Park and £420,600 for St Nicholas Park were approved, with the funding coming from section 106 budgets - money gathered from housing developers to invest in local services.

The pools are yet to reopen.

On the initial delays, the council's report explained: "By Spring 2025, it became apparent that the project timescales were slipping, the head of neighbourhood services and the portfolio holder for neighbourhood services started to join the project meetings with both contractors and the green spaces team to ascertain what the concerns and issues were with the timescales and expressed their concern and disappointment in the delay in progress being made. 

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"Some of the delays were due to waiting times for parts, poor weather slowing down progress on the ground works and technical concerns in relation to the plant room and surfacing raised by the current maintenance contractor."

Victoria Park paddling pool was opened to the public on 26 July 2025 before shutting again on 13 August.

The decision was then made not to reopen the St Nicholas Park site.

"The closure of the paddling pool caused a lot of disappointment and resulted in local press interest and negative comments on social media, which risked the reputation of the council," the report continued. 

"As part of the response to this the council committed to a review of works and report back to overview & scrutiny committee on the review and associated learning."

WDC has since commissioned an external consultant to investigate how and where the project went wrong.

A draft report was shared in December and the council is now waiting to hear back from the contractors.

"Rectification works continue at both sites and the current expected completion dates are early summer 2026, although this is weather dependent," the report continued. 

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