IT’S fingers crossed in Brightlingsea this week for the filling of the town pool.

The popular summer attraction in Promenade Way has been closed all year after a leak was discovered last year.

Now, repairs have been completed for “significantly less” than the £40,000 originally budgeted and the pool is set to open on Saturday July 30.

“We started filling it on Monday but it takes four days to fill up,” said Brightlingsea town and district councillor Graham Steady.

“On the 15th one of the pool companies will come down and add chemicals and on the 22nd we will switch on the plant room. Then, if everything is okay, we will be okay to open on Saturday 30th of July,” Graham said.

Brightlingsea Town Council recently agreed to fund the pairs after Tendring Council threatened the pool with closure, saying the pool cost too much to run.

Tendring has agreed to pay its running costs this year, with the two councils agreeing to talk about its longer term future.

Mr Steady said the town council “called in a few favours” from local firms for the repairs, which saw a number of pipes being replaced. Many were found to be damaged but even some that were not, were replaced just to be on the safe side.

“From the camera examination it appears that the other pipes are okay, but we cannot be 100% sure until the pool is filled. The pipe system was cleaned throughout. If there proves still to be a leak then we will have to decide on another course of action,” he said.

Examination holes in the pool have now been back filled and the pool is ready for painting.

“We have done what we think was needed,” Mr Steady said.

No-one will know if there remains a leak until the pool is filled up, then it’s a case of see how it goes.

“If there’s a leak, we will keep it open. We’ll keep topping it up as we did last year,” he added.