Leisure centre bosses say they are unable to confirm when technical issues forcing the closure of a town’s swimming pools will be fixed.

At the weekend, the facilities at Ashford Stour Centre – which underwent a major £7.5 million refurbishment project in 2021 – were shut until further notice.

It comes as the air source heat pump has a fault meaning the water cannot be heated to the right temperature in the two pools.

Freedom Leisure runs the site on behalf of Ashford Borough Council (ABC), which owns the centre, has today confirmed engineers are working on site and apologised for the inconvenience caused.

“We are currently experiencing technical problems with our air source heat pumps at The Stour Centre which means we are not able to heat the pool water to a sufficient temperature that our customers would expect,” a spokesperson said.

“The pool is currently closed while we try and rectify the problem.

“We have engineers on site currently however, we are not able at this stage to confirm when the heat pumps will be fixed.

“We apologise for the obvious inconvenience caused and we would like to reassure customers we are doing everything we can to rectify this issue as soon as we can. As soon as we are able to update customers we will do so via our website and social media.”

An ABC spokesperson added: “Unfortunately The Stour Centre, run by Freedom Leisure, is currently experiencing technical failures of the heating systems and as a consequence, the swimming pools are closed until further notice.

“Freedom Leisure is working to resolve this issue as soon as possible, however please check The Stour Centre Facebook page and website for the latest updates.”

Users of the facility are keen for the pool to be reopened as soon as possible with several saying it is a valuable asset to Ashford.

Lindy Wallis has been a member at the Stour Centre for three-and-a-half years and says it is an affordable way to go swimming and a “wonderful” facility.

“I think that our community swimming pool is very important for all ages and all abilities,” she said.

“It should be a priority to get it up and running as soon as possible.

“Whatever the reason may be, it should always be communicated to the public. This is a community leisure centre so it’s for everyone to enjoy, not just for pleasure for health reasons too and so I think to be transparent and communicating is very important, no matter what business you want to run.

“I think we have a really wonderful leisure centre here in Ashford and we need to take pride in it and keep it open.

“I know some across the country have closed and we’re quite a big town now with a lot more people moving in and I think although we have lots of nice private clubs, they’re more expensive and this hits the price for a lot of people, families and children.”

Jane was on her way to use the pool this morning and says she was disappointed to hear it was still shut.

“My husband mentioned it was closed last week because he was going to go but I completely forgot that conversation and I would have thought by now it would have reopened anyway because it’s just a technical hitch,” she said.

“It’s my fault for not checking really because these things do happen and you can’t assume.

“I try to come a few times a month to do a few lengths and have never had a problem in the past with the facility.

“I was a bit disappointed, it’s part of my routine and I kind of rely on the swimming pool. I don’t have a car so I get the train from Lenham and I didn’t realise it was closed so it’s a bit frustrating.”

But, she added she thinks the staff are working as quickly as possible to get the problem rectified.

“If it’s a big job where they have to drain the pool then it could take a couple of weeks I guess,” she said.

“It’s very consistently open so I don’t think they’re being lazy over it or complacent – I think they’re trying to get things sorted out as soon as possible because I’ve never had any problems in the past.”

Labour leader for Ashford, Brendan Chilton, said: “Residents will be disappointed that once again the pool at the Stour Centre is out of action.

“Millions of pounds have been spent on refurbishing the Stour Centre and it is important these ongoing maintenance issues are ironed out as quickly as possible.

“Affordable leisure facilities in Ashford are few and far between.

“The Stour Centre needs to be run as a leisure centre for the health and wellbeing of residents and the management needs to ensure these ongoing problems are resolved so the centre can fully open to the public and turn over the revenue to make the facility profitable.”