A specialist team will be carrying out checks at a leisure centre after parents complained their children hurt themselves in the paddling pool.

Mums Jennifer Littlejohn, Amanda Chapman and Xenia Crawford took their little ones to Splashes in Rainham.

The trio sat in the children’s pool while the tots played in the shallow area; crawling around and using the infant slide.

When they got home, the mums noticed their children had grazes on their knees and feet.

Xenia’s daughter Stephanie, three, complained that her knees hurt, while Jennifer’s son Brendan, four, screamed in pain when taking his socks off because they had stuck to weeping sores on the top of his feet.

The mums complained to management the following day and were told they should not have let Stephanie, Brendan and Chloe, aged three, play in the under fives pool – despite all the children being under five.

Jennifer, 27, of Fox Street, Gillingham, said: “The management were not very apologetic. They said the surface of the children’s pool had to be rough so it wasn’t a slip hazard.”

Amanda has since been offered a free family ticket for the pool but said she will not be accepting it.

The 38-year-old, of Corporation Road, Gillingham, said: “I don’t want the tickets because I won’t be taking my daughter back there.

Jennifer added: “It is the first time I have taken Brendan swimming and at the time he loved it. But he now says he doesn’t want to go back because it made his feet hurt, so I will be taking him swimming somewhere else.”

A Medway Council spokesman said: “We are very sorry to hear the children were left with grazing after visiting the toddlers’ section of the pool last week.

“We take the safety of children extremely seriously and as a result have asked a specialist team to carry out a check on that area of the pool.

“When children crawl around in the shallow water it can naturally cause some grazing as the tiles are a different material to the adult pool in order to make them non-slip and give children an extra level of safety.

“We had 24,000 visitors to Splashes last month alone and we will always listen if parents alert us to an issue. We have very many customers who enjoy their experience at Splashes and we will do all we can to ensure that continues.”