The pool, which is located at Consett Leisure Centre, was closed for safety reasons for more than two years by Durham County Council, which became aware of significant technical issues when it took over the management of the centre in 2018.

The finishes to the pool tanks and surrounds were failing resulting in tiles cracking and coming away from the walls as well as significant leaks and water loss.

Consett Pool opened in 2015 following the development of a new academy and leisure centre. The original construction contractor Carillion, which would ordinarily be responsible for rectifying the issues, went into liquidation.

In 2021, the Council appointed Alliance Leisure under the UK Leisure Framework to lead the remediation works with a team that included contractors ISG and swimming pool engineers FT Leisure.

In a UK first, the entire main pool was relined with a stainless steel tank using RenovAction technology from Myrtha Pools, which was prefabricated off-site. Installed on top of the existing tiles, the tank provides a complete waterproof solution and is more cost effective than replacing the tiles. New finishes were also applied to the centre’s smaller pool and splash play area.

Scheduled to take up to 12 months to complete owing to the extensive nature of the defects, the works were completed in just six months.

“Bringing Consett Swimming Pool back into public use has been an extremely challenging project. The works were complex due to working within and around existing infrastructure that had either failed or was of a poor standard," said Sean Nolan, business development manager at Alliance Leisure.

"The team had to be flexible in their approach to ensure the solution, which has never been performed in the UK before, was correctly installed and worked effectively. The result is a revitalised swimming pool that the public can enjoy for years to come.”