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Left high and dry at pool

19 August 2004

EDITORIAL - herts.advertiser@archant.co.uk

A TRIP to the swimming pool turned into a nightmare for a single mother and her four-year-old son.

All their property and clothes were stolen from a locker at the pool in Harpenden and they were unable to phone for help because they were told the pool phones were out of action The problems on Sunday, August 9, began when Johana Budge from Whitwell arrived at the pool and discovered another customer complaining about the state of the children's changing cubicles.

Because nappy bins were filthy and the floor and benches were covered in urine, Ms Budge took her son to the women's changing area as it was less dirty than the rest.

But a number of changing cubicles had no locks on the doors and some had no doors at all. There was no paper in the toilets and two showers were not working.

In addition a number of lockers were disabled and then her £1 coin jammed in the lock on the one she chose.

In the confusion, Ms Budge forgot to pick up her locker key and when she went back for it she found all their property, including clothes and towels and her handbag including her mobile phone and car keys, had been stolen.

When she asked to use a phone she was told they were not working because of a power surge. She asked a member of staff to pop outside and check her car to make sure that the locker thief was not trying to steal it. But the pool staff could not offer any other help because they were short of people and the manager was not available.

Apologised

Ms Budge and her son, still in their wet swimming costumes, were eventually offered a towel from lost property and another pool user lent her a mobile phone to call for help.

Leisure Connection, which runs the pool on behalf of St Albans District Council, has now apologised to Ms Budge and offered her free use of the pool for a month.

In a letter to her, Leisure Connection business manager Andy Clayson has admitted that the series of incidents was "totally unacceptable" and should have been dealt with in a more professional manner.

He admits there were phone problems, partly caused by an electrical storm earlier in the week, but says the office phone line was still in working order and that each duty manager had a mobile phone for use in an emergency.

He said that as a result of the incident the company has now set up a box with towels and dry clothes and staff have been told to be extra vigilant for people breaking into lockers. Mr Clayson admits that cleanliness was not up to standard, but explained that new contractors started on the following day to replace the previous unacceptable ones. And he said a lock company had been contacted to bring all lockers back into service.

Cllr Sheila Burton, who holds the district council's sport and healthy living portfolio, said: "This is a management failure by Leisure Connection and is completely unacceptable. We will be asking for a full explanation and taking whatever action is appropriate.

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