Essential maintenance work has forced the closure of a town’s swimming pool, say bosses.

The facilities were closed on Monday for structural repairs including the reinforcement of five wooden beams at Faversham Pools which will remain shut for much of this month.

But staff are also taking the opportunity to spruce up the centre with a deep clean and fixing things like broken tiles, painting and tidying up the garden area.

“Because of the nature of the work, we had no option but to close, despite the loss of income,” said marketing and fundraising manager Megan Mousley.

“The building and facilities do suffer a fair bit of wear and tear because we have about 250,000 people through the doors every year. So the short closure is also giving us the chance to tackle some extra jobs.

“But we hope it will offer our users an even better experience when we re-open on Monday, November 25.”

The open-air pool opened in 1964 and the indoor one in 1993.

Faversham Pools is a registered charity and plays a crucial part in the life of the town and supporting school swimming lessons, but costs about £1.3 million to run every year.

But the trustees are still determined to enhance the facilities which recently included refurbishing the changing room lockers.

Megan says the team are always looking for new ways to increase usage and generate extra income to meet the hefty bills.

“We want to utilise all our space as best as possible and will be coming up with some new ideas and attractions for next year.

“Some of those we have already run, like our sunset swims, ‘Fido Lido’ swim for dogs, cinema nights and Halloween party have proved very popular.

“We are also planning a Christmas party and our popular ‘ice-breaker’ New Year’s Day swim.”