HELENSBURGH will be without a swimming pool for almost a month this summer, it's been announced.

Argyll and Bute Council officials have revealed that the current facility will close four weeks before the town's new waterfront leisure centre opens.

The existing centre will shut its doors for the final time on Friday, August 5, but the new centre is not scheduled to open to the public on Saturday, September 3.

The current pool has remained open throughout the construction phase as planned, but the council says the closure is required to allow staff to settle in to the new facility and be trained to work in the new environment, as well as for gym equipment to be installed.

The authority also says local clubs will get the chance to try the new facility a few days before it opens to the public.

The new building will be handed over to Live Argyll, the company and charitable trust which runs former council leisure facilities across Argyll and Bute, at the end of this month.

But Helensburgh residents – including young people in the last week of the school holidays – will have to travel to Dumbarton or Alexandria to get access to indoor swimming facilities during the period between the current pool closing and the new one opening. 

A spokesperson for Argyll and Bute Council said: “This fantastic new asset for residents and visitors to Helensburgh is almost complete.

“We officially hand over the building to Live Argyll on July 29, with the existing pool closing on August 5.

“A period of settling in and staff training will follow with the gym and studio equipment arriving during this time.

“Live Argyll will invite local clubs to try the pool from August 29. The building and pool will officially open to the public on September 3.”

The new leisure centre project secured planning permission in January 2019 after a lengthy process which saw a public hearing, in November 2018, only decide to continue the application.

It originally had a planned opening date of April 2020, but an “inadvertent technical breach” meant that the opening date was delayed until November 2021.

It was then pushed back further to May after delays in the tendering process, and was finally slated to open in "summer 2022" - before Helensburgh councillor Gary Mulvaney, writing in the Advertiser last month, confirmed the early September opening date.