The national pool

The Malta Sports Council (KMS) became responsible for the national pool complex last February. This responsibility included works, which had been planned previously, to be carried out during the winter months. One of the mission statements of the KMS is best use of available resources and this concept has been extended to the national pool complex.

The ultimate aim of the KMS is to improve and market the complex both nationally and internationally.

This aim includes the vast improvements which need to be carried out, as well as the upgrading and training of staff. Best practice resource management is a top priority of the KMS.

To begin this process the KMS board placed a director in the complex to oversee the beginning of these plans until a facility manager was appointed. This director is the undersigned. I contacted The Times myself when I heard that an article on the national pool was to be published. However, it was difficult to add any comments to an article whose subject was not known. In fact, the KMS will be happy to pass on full details of the work being carried out at the national pool, together with their hopes and aspirations for the future as soon as the present work is ready.

In the meantime the overseas groups, together with local users, have been using the 25-metre pool, which has been difficult for everyone. To date no groups have postponed visiting due to the works on the pool, or cancelled via the pool staff. If they have cancelled via a third party, such as agents, then the pool has not been directly involved in these transactions.

Some groups that were given confirmed dates by the previous management of January and February were unhappy, however, the present management placated the groups on arrival and gave them the best service they could under the circumstances.

Regarding comments that the groups may never use Malta again, this is not the attitude shown to the staff by those who came here. They were, in fact, more upset that the weather was not as they expected from a Mediterranean island.

The tiles on the side of the pool were already repaired before the KMS took over the complex. Therefore, they decided to take on the additional work of replacing the broken and damaged tiles around the pool while the pool was empty of water. In addition, other maintenance will be done to enhance the pool area.

Throughout the works of the past two months the weather has hampered the smooth running of the project and, in fact, is holding up the painting of the lane lines at the moment. As soon as the weather dries up the lines can be painted and the pool filled; the final process will be heating the water.

The KMS hopes that by next week the pool will be available for use although the weather will have to improve during this week to reach that deadline.